Jam and Vermont in DC
by romanticgirlgeek
Summary: An alternative ending to 5x09 leading to a 5B where Olivia and Fitz find jam, Vermont and babies in DC while dealing with the typical intrigue, drama, and angst of Scandal madness. Elements from 5B canon will be incorporated with the fanfic 5B. Rated M for adult themes and sexual content.
1. A Baby on the Way

**Author's Note:**

 **As I slowly wrap up** **Olitz Reboot** **which is a fictionalized account of how the** _ **Scandal**_ **cast along with a set of Gladiator Writers saved the show after the mess of 5x09, I am starting this new piece, Jam and Vermont** **in DC** **.**

 **This fanfic is what this Olitz shipper would have like to have seen as the ending for 5x09 (if an unexpected pregnancy is a plot device) as part of the set up for a 5B that would have been more in line to what we have seen from S1 to S3, or at least I think that.**

 _ **Scandal**_ **and its characters all belong to the "esteemed" SR and Shondaland Productions and for that I wish had enough money to buy the IP rights to them…**

* * *

As Olivia sat in the clinic waiting room waiting for the nurse to call her, she watched on the TV screen Mellie continuing with her filibuster to block a bill that contained provisions to cut funding for women's health care from being passed.

"Miss Pope, we are ready for you," said the nurse who came to get her.

As Olivia gathered her handbag and coat, she glanced around the waiting room and saw her Secret Service detail. She was glad they would be remaining in the waiting room while she went back to the clinic area to have the abortion. It was bad enough they had to be with her everywhere she went. At least she was afforded some moments of privacy.

Olivia followed the nurse through a door and the two walked down a hallway. While Olivia was walking beside the nurse, a different of image of Mellie popped into Olivia's mind. It was a pregnant Mellie when they saw each other at Pastor Drake's home. Mellie had come to pay her respects to Mrs. Drake after Pastor Drake died from a sudden heart attack while with his mistress. Olivia had been at the Drakes' home because OPA had been hired to cover the tracks of the affair and as to where Pastor Drake had been at the time of his death.

In Olivia's mind, she saw Mellie wearing a smug smile and proudly showing off her pregnant belly to Olivia – it was Mellie's way of letting her know that she held claim to being Fitz's wife and the baby she was carrying was just another affirmation to it.

Then Olivia heard Fitz's voice in her head…

 _Somewhere in another life, another reality, we are married and have 4 kids…we live in Vermont…_

 _We can move to Vermont…I'm going to marry you…we are going to have babies…two babies, I think…_

All of the sudden Olivia stopped in tracks while the nurse continued on walking. When the nurse realized that Olivia stopped walking, she returned to spot where Olivia was standing still.

"Miss Pope, are you all right? I know this is a difficult situation…" but before the nurse could continue on, Olivia said, "I've changed my mind. I'm sorry to have bothered…"

"It's fine, Miss Pope," said the nurse reassuringly. "I'll take you back to the waiting area."

"Thank you," responded Olivia. As they were walking back to the waiting area, Olivia asked the nurse, "Do you have any recommendations or suggestions on how to deal with morning sickness?"

* * *

Olivia wanted to be alone and knew the only place where she could have refuge was her apartment. Even though Fitz had her belongings packed up and moved over to the White House, her furniture was still at the apartment. All she wanted to do was climb into her bed and be buried underneath the covers. She would deal with Fitz tomorrow.

Olivia was already expecting a blowup from Fitz for missing the holiday dinner with the Cabinet. However, the blowup about the holiday dinner would only mask the much bigger problem that was hurting their relationship – her decision to conspire with Mellie to let her father out of prison, the man who was responsible for Jerry's death. Even though Fitz forgave her, he was still angry and feeling betrayed, and she didn't blame him for it.

She hoped by taking up the role of "First Lady in waiting" would make things better between them but it only made it worse, at least on her end. While she didn't mind playing hostess and making small talk at cocktail parties and dinners, but she was turning brain dead from it. Granted, she wasn't the official "First Lady" – the "First Lady" position could be involved in an "activist" role if that what the First Lady wanted to do. But, as the "First Lady in waiting", she was stuck in nowhere land.

Olivia needed time and a quiet place for her think about what she wanted and needed to do. Her change of mind about the abortion was already putting her in the direction about thinking wanting to have the baby. When she found out that she was pregnant, she acted on her gut and went on automatic pilot to schedule the abortion without thinking twice. However, even though her famous "Olivia Pope" gut was never wrong but she was finding herself being lead in the wrong direction by her gut more recently.

Like deciding to conspire with Mellie to let her father out of prison to stop Fitz's impeachment hearing. In hindsight, after her father told her about the secret information that could be used to stop the hearings, she should have follow up with Huck and Charlie to find out what they knew and started digging herself rather than rely on her father to stop the impeachment hearings. Instead, all she wanted was for everything to go away in an instant – like a magic wand and which was probably immature on her part.

Before arriving at her apartment, she had the security detail stop off at a convenience store to buy some ginger ale and saltines. Even though the nurse recommended ginger tea, she said ginger ale would be all right but in a limited quantity because it was still soda. Olivia would get some ginger tea from her favorite specialty tea shop. Since she didn't have any "comfy" clothes at the apartment, they made another stop at an Old Navy for her to get a pair of leggings and a tee shirt for her to change into. They made a final stop to a deli for her to get some soup – she needed nourishment for her and the baby but it had to be something light because of the nausea. She hoped she would be able to hold down the soup.

As soon as Olivia arrived at her apartment, she put the soup in the refrigerator so she could have it later when she feeling up to eating. After setting the bottle of ginger ale and saltines on the bedside table, she changed out her clothes into the leggings and tee-shirt and climbed into bed. She ate a few saltine crackers and took a swig of ginger ale to settle her stomach. Soon afterwards, she settled into the bed with the covers over her and closed her eyes.

* * *

As the last of the dinner guests for the holiday dinner that Fitz and supposedly Olivia were hosting bid their goodbyes to Fitz and expressed their regret in not seeing Olivia, a Secret Service agent was on a cell phone speaking in a low voice and when the agent finished the call, he put the phone away inside his coat pocket. When the agent saw Fitz was alone, he approached Fitz and said, "Mr. President, Miss Pope is at her apartment."

"Thank you. We'll be on the move after I get changed," responded Fitz.

"Yes, sir." The agent spoke into his wrist microphone to let the other agents know that Fitz was going to be on the move and heading to Olivia's apartment.

Fitz hurried back up to the Residence to change out of his tuxedo into a pair of jeans, a tee-shirt, a Navy sweatshirt, and a pair of sneakers. He grabbed a wool overcoat before he headed into the elevator. He was soon settled into the unmarked SUV that he normally traveled in along with his Secret Service detail but without the motorcade.

Fitz was trying very hard to maintain his control and his temper. He expected Olivia to be there tonight at the dinner with him greeting their guests. Instead Olivia disappeared since the afternoon with no sign or word as to where she was going. She hadn't answered her cell phone when he called her to find out where she was.

As soon as the Secret Service agent told him that Olivia was back at her apartment, Fitz felt a sense of relief. At least she hadn't run off to another country or was doing a job for OPA outside of DC. Her being at the apartment meant she needed some distance and space from the White House and from him.

Thinking upon his action for moving Olivia into the White House, it was motivated by both anger and love. He was still angry with her for conspiring with Mellie to have Rowan released from prison. The man had murdered his son and Olivia knew this. Even though she had done it to stop the impeachment hearings and to save his presidency but in his mind, it was horrible price to pay for it. He felt betrayed and worse, he could no longer trust Olivia and he needed to keep a closer eye as to what she was doing, and which was wrong. A relationship cannot exist without trust and that he was mistrusting her was putting their relationship in jeopardy.

Even though he hadn't wanted the impeachment hearings to be the impetus for them to get married, he had been so happy when Olivia said yes to them getting married but then only to have her fleeing off somewhere. He didn't know her sudden abrupt departure from the Oval Office where they were about to have their wedding was because her father had gotten out prison to provide the necessary "incentives" to the Senate Judiciary Committee to stop the hearings.

He knew Olivia was afraid and was hesitant about marriage. He thought by moving Olivia to the White House, it would give them a chance to be a couple and have her get used to the role of being First Lady. All he wanted was for them to marry, being America's First Couple, and to start their family. He didn't have a lot of time remaining in office as POTUS and he wanted Olivia to have the privilege of having the title of First Lady, which he knew in his heart, she so rightly deserved.

Instead, all it did was create a wedge between them. He hoped there was a chance they could undo the damage that had been done.

* * *

When Fitz arrived in front of Olivia's apartment, he saw Olivia's agents were standing outside. Rather than knocking, he let himself in with the key he had. Once inside, Fitz saw the apartment was dark and the curtains were drawn. He walked towards Olivia's bedroom and found her sleeping. Whatever anger Fitz felt inside melt away when he saw Olivia's sleeping form. As he gently stroked her cheek, Fitz glanced at the bedside table and saw the saltines and ginger ale. As a father of three, he remembered when Mellie was pregnant, she kept saltines by the bedside table to help with the nausea from morning sickness.

 _Is Olivia pregnant?!,_ was the thought that went through Fitz's head. He told himself to calm down. It was possible that Olivia was sick with a stomach bug and experiencing nausea from that.

Since Olivia was sleeping closer to one side of the bed and the other side was empty, Fitz quickly stripped down to his boxers and climbed into bed with Olivia. As Olivia lay sleeping, Fitz managed to spoon against her warm body so he would be close to her. As he lay side by side with Olivia, he could hear her breathe and soon his breathing was in sync with hers as he closed his eyes.

Couple of hours later, Olivia awoke to find an arm draped over her. Without needing to turn her head, she knew it was Fitz's arm. Suddenly, Olivia felt a wave of nausea swept over her and the need to throw up. She quickly hurriedly out of bed and ran to the bathroom. In course of getting out the bed, Olivia woke Fitz up. As Fitz was starting to sit up after being woken up so abruptly, he could hear Olivia throwing up in the bathroom. He quickly got out of bed so he could to tend to Olivia in the bathroom.

When he got to the bathroom, Fitz saw Olivia on her knees in front of the toilet throwing up. After Olivia was done throwing up, Fitz took a face towel off the towel rack and dampened with warm water from the sink before he knelt next to Olivia to wipe her face. Olivia then took the towel to rest it on her forehead. As she was doing that, Fitz flushed the toilet before taking Olivia in his arms to hold her.

"Feeling better, darling?" asked Fitz.

"Not really," replied Olivia. "I still feel nauseous."

"We should get you to a doctor. If this a stomach bug…" but before Fitz could continue, Olivia looked in him in the eye and said in a matter of fact voice, "It's not a stomach bug, Fitz. You are going to be a father again. I'm pregnant."


	2. Deciding What to Do

As soon Olivia said "You are going to be a father again," she knew she made the decision to have the baby. She was no longer thinking about whether to have the baby but now had to think what they were going to do next. Fitz's reputation was rebounding from the impeachment hearings but news of a presidential "love" child would more than likely destroy the remainder of Fitz's term. Americans weren't like Europeans who tolerated married politicians having affairs or unmarried politicians having children out of marriage. Fitz and she needed to talk about the situation and what their "game" plan would be.

"Fitz, we need to talk…" said Olivia as she set the face towel on the bathroom sink counter. She then saw tears welling up in Fitz's eyes. "Fitz, are you ok?"

Fitz was too overwhelmed with emotions to answer Olivia's question. When he heard that he was going be a father again and Olivia was pregnant, he couldn't believe his greatest wish had finally come true – Olivia and he were going a child. He was going to have a child with the love of his life and this was special to Fitz. Not to say he didn't love Karen and Teddy and he still grieved the loss of Jerry, his first born and namesake, and all three were special to him but the child Olivia was carrying was special in a different way that he couldn't explain.

Fitz finally managed to find the words to say, "This is incredible, Livie. I love you so much," as he felt his tears run down his cheeks.

"Oh, Fitz," said Olivia in a soft voice as she wiped away Fitz's tears with her thumbs. Seeing Fitz cry over the news that they were going to have a baby also overwhelmed her. The most powerful man in the world and leader of the free world was brought to tears with the news that he was going to become a father.

"Fitz, we do really need to talk," said Olivia trying to bring both of them back to the grounded reality of their situation. The recently divorced President of the United States and his girlfriend were going to have a baby.

"Yes, we do. Your bathroom floor isn't right place for us to talk. Are you feeling well enough to stand up?"

"Yeah," replied Olivia as slowly got up from the bathroom floor with Fitz helping to support her as she was doing it. "Let me rinse my mouth," she said as soon as she was standing. After she rinsed her mouth, Fitz surprised Olivia by sweeping her off her feet and carrying her back to bed.

When they were in the bedroom, Fitz set Olivia down gently on her side of the bed before he got back on his side of the bed. Once they were settled in bed, he pulled the covers over them as they snuggled up together.

Olivia knew she needed to be honest with Fitz about tonight and what she had planned to do initially. She didn't want Fitz to find out where she had been and have him blindsided. Even though she did change her mind, trying to hide what she planned to do might hurt their already fragile situation.

"Fitz, there is something you need to know. The reason why I wasn't at the holiday dinner party with the Cabinet tonight was I was at an abortion clinic." Olivia expected Fitz to recoil from the news but he hadn't. All he did was to hold her closer to him and stroked her hair.

"I'm happy you decided not to follow through. What made you changed your mind?" asked Fitz while he looked down at Olivia.

"You. I kept hearing your voice talking about kids and Vermont. And believe it or not, it was Mellie."

"Mellie? How?"

"I was thinking back to the time when Mellie and I saw each other at Pastor Drake's home. She had been pregnant with Teddy and proudly showing off her bump to me. She was letting me know in her superior manner she held the honor of being your wife and the mother of your children while I was just the mistress who just got the bits and pieces of you," said Olivia as she was trying to hold back the tears. The tears of hurt and humiliation she had endured during the past few years of being the "other woman".

"Don't ever call yourself the mistress. You know you are more than that."

"I know but it's something I need to work through. I knew if I made the decision not to have the baby, I would be acknowledging Mellie that I only deserved the bits and pieces and not a full life with you."

"And do you want a full life with me, Livie?"

"I do but I'm scared. I don't have the greatest role models in family life. Between having a father who is a bombastic ruthless murderer and a mother who is an international assassin who had no qualms about killing the President of the United States, I'm probably not someone who should be thinking about becoming a wife and mother. That's why I keep running. I never had normal so how can I be normal."

"Just because you never had normal doesn't mean you can't have normal but it's a different kind of normal. Liv, I'm the President of the United States and the most powerful man in the world and you are the world's greatest fixer and the powerful woman in the world, we can't never be normal in the traditional sense but we can a have life together, raising a family and growing old together."

"You make it sound easy, Fitz."

"No, it's not going to be easy. Jam and Vermont were how we saw normal and we will have work together to find jam and Vermont that is right for us. Even though we have the house in Vermont, we don't have to permanently relocate to Vermont once my term is over. Anyway, we both know I can't be a mayor in Vermont after being POTUS. I don't think any town in Vermont in its right mind would want me running it after my 8 years being in charge of the entire country, but I suppose you could learn to make jam."

Olivia laughed at Fitz's comment and her laugh brought a smile to Fitz's face.

"I suppose I could ask the White House pastry chef for lessons."

"Well, if it's any good, we can jar it and sell it in the White House gift shop. I'm sure the public would love to have a jar of jam made by the famous Olivia Pope," Fitz commented and which made Olivia laugh again.

After Olivia stopped laughing, she knew she needed to confide in Fitz about her emotional and psychological state. "Fitz, I haven't told anyone but I have PTSD from the kidnapping." Between the PTSD and pregnancy, her emotions and mood were all over the place. "I never got help for it and now that I'm pregnant, I'm worried the hormone changes will make the PTSD worse."

"Why haven't you gotten help for the PTSD?"

"I can't show up at some therapist/counselor office to talk about it. I can't say "Former Vice President Nichols arranged to have me kidnapped so he could blackmail the President to start a war in West Angola". I know there are confidentiality laws but it's too risky."

"We'll find someone to help you with the PTSD. We can talk to medical experts about pregnancy and PTSD. As POTUS, I'm not without resources to make this happen without the world needing to know about it. I'm going to take care of you to make sure you are healthy while you are pregnant and for our baby to be born healthy."

"Fitz, what if the doctors say it's too dangerous for me to have the baby because of the PTSD?..."

"We'll make the decision then. Together. All right?"

"OK. We are in this together," said Olivia as she turned to face Fitz so as she could caress his face.

Fitz took the hand that Olivia used to caress his face and held it. "We are in this together," he said before kissing her palm.

Olivia knew there was another important matter they still needed to discuss. "Fitz, your presidency isn't going to survive another scandal. Having a pregnant unmarried girlfriend is going to be way worse than the mistress girlfriend situation."

"Let me worry about that. What's Congress going to do? Impeach me again?" asked Fitz sarcastically with a raised eyebrow.

"There is no double jeopardy clause in the Constitution for impeachment so it is possible," countered Olivia. "We do have the Senate Judiciary Committee's skeletons as leverage against another impeachment hearing but Congress can block any bill you want to pass in retaliation for another scandal. You are already in a lame duck position because your term will be ending soon. You don't need to give Congress any more ammunition to block you."

"What do you want to do? Please don't tell me you want to go into hiding. I need to be with you, especially now…"

"No hiding and no more hiding or running," said Olivia declaratively. "I want to do something else. Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III, will you marry me?"


	3. Over a Cliff

**Author's Note:**

 **Thank you to fellow fanfic readers and writers for following this story and favoriting this story.**

 **In canon 5x09, it seemed the timeline was around Christmas Eve and Christmas Day which seemed odd to me considering in real life, Congress would have ended a few days before Christmas Eve. But, hey, this is** _ **Scandal**_ **timeline and as we all know, the creative powers of** _ **Scandal**_ **have no problems with being revisionists.**

 **For this fanfic, the story (Mellie's filibuster and Olivia's visit to the abortion clinic) starts two days before Christmas Eve in order to have this story make sense.**

* * *

"Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III, will you marry me? asked Olivia.

It took Fitz a moment to process what Olivia was asking him. Olivia was asking him to marry her.

He broke into big smile before saying, "Yes, I will marry you, Olivia Carolyn Pope." He then took Olivia in his arms and the two shared a passionate kiss. He knew that Olivia was still feeling sick and probably wouldn't be in the mood for lovemaking so he just held her after their kiss.

While he held her, he heard Olivia's stomach rumbling. Fitz realized Olivia missed the dinner party and probably had only eaten the saltine crackers that were on the bedside table, she was probably hungry. Even though she was feeling nauseous, she still needed to eat, especially now that she was pregnant.

"Liv, you haven't had any real food. I'll ask one of the agents to get something for you…"

"No need. I have some chicken soup in the refrigerator. I was going to heat it up when I was feeling up to eating."

"Do you want some now? I can heat it up for you."

"Yeah, but not too much. I'm not sure how much I can hold down."

"Sure," Fitz said as he got out of bed to go to the kitchen.

After Fitz left to go to the kitchen, Olivia propped up her pillows against the headboard so she could sit up and support her back. While Fitz was in the kitchen, Olivia was thinking how spontaneous she had been when proposing to Fitz. The proposal just came out of her. When she proposed to him, all she was thinking about was that she wanted to marry him and for the two of them to build a life together.

Fitz's attempted proposal hadn't been that long ago and when he asked her what she wanted, she couldn't answer him at that time. She knew she couldn't answer him because she had been afraid. Marrying Fitz wasn't simply being his wife and the mother of his children, it also meant assuming a role because who he was.

Her conversation with Mellie in the walk-in closet created doubts on whether she wanted to be First Lady because of the restrictions that would be placed upon her and which had been confirmed during her time living in the White House when she took on an "ornamental" role. However, Olivia also knew when the situation became intolerable for her, she hadn't spoken up to Fitz to tell him if he wanted them to work as a couple, and in particular, as America's First Couple, they needed to be equal partners working together. Her own failure contributed to the unhappiness and anger she had been feeling.

It was that anger that fueled her desire to help Mellie to succeed with the filibuster. She asked Susan to step in to ask Mellie questions so Mellie could have a break. She even gave words of encouragement to Mellie in the ladies room so to keep her going with the filibuster. Granted what Mellie filibustered over for wasn't a trivial matter – to protect funding for women's health, especially for low-income women but it was done at the expense of a government shutdown with government employees not getting paid.

" _Oh shit, what the hell did I do? People aren't going to get paid because of me. I helped Mellie shut down the US government,"_ thought Olivia. It wasn't just the fat cats who weren't getting paid but it was working parents who probably got by from paycheck to paycheck. To have this happen around the holiday season only made it worse. They were probably counting on paychecks to pay for gifts and presents or to cover the costs if they used their credit cards. At that moment, Olivia realized her emotional and psychological state was really throwing her off. Even though Fitz hadn't asked for her help and opinion on the matter, she hadn't bothered to intervene to turn the tide on the situation and even sniped back at Fitz while they watched Mellie on TV. Had she been on the game, she would have told Fitz that she needed to step in to stop Mellie's filibuster as well as figuring out a way to get Planned Parenthood moved off the discretionary column on the spending list.

Olivia knew Fitz was skeptical of Mellie's motivation for the filibuster but she felt Mellie did it with good intention but hadn't considered the bigger implication of her action. Since Planned Parenthood was part of the overall spending bill, consequences of the successful filibuster were far more serious. No doubt the spending bill also included items for defense, national security, education and other social programs. All of which weren't going to get any monies until Congress resumed and if Congress didn't move quickly to get a revised bill voted and passed, there would be no government spending.

Fitz was going to have deal with the fallout of Mellie's successful filibuster. This coupled with their personal situation, Fitz was going to have a lot of problems when the new year started and Congress resumed session. Olivia realized that she needed to be honest with Fitz with what she did, and Fitz would have every right to be angry.

When Fitz returned to the bedroom with a small bowl of chicken soup with a spoon in it, he said, "Be careful, it's hot," as he handed the bowl to Olivia. After handing the bowl to Olivia, he got back to his side of the bed. He also propped his pillow so he could sit up with Olivia.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi," Olivia responded back with a weak smile before spooning some soup into her mouth. She realized if she was going to talk politics and optics of the filibuster with Fitz, she needed to eat something first since all she had were saltines and ginger ale. There was also the baby to think about and her days of living only on popcorn and red wine would need to end for the next few months.

Fitz just quietly watched Olivia eat her soup. She managed to finish all of the soup before setting the empty bowl on the bedside table.

"How are you feeling?" asked Fitz.

"The nausea is not as bad as before," replied Olivia as she grabbed a few saltines to munch on.

"Let me get you some water. You need to stay hydrated." Fitz got out of bed and went to back to the kitchen to get a glass of water for Olivia. When he returned with the water and handed it to Olivia, she said, "Thanks." After taking a healthy drink, she set the glass on the bedside table.

After Fitz settled back into bed, he held Olivia close to him and kissed her temple before saying, "I'm looking forward to taking care of you during next few months. You and our baby."

Olivia started to cry when she heard Fitz's comment about him taking care of her and the baby. When Fitz saw the tears, he became alarmed. "Livie, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" After surviving three pregnancies with Mellie, Fitz knew the unpredictability of pregnancy hormones and the slightest comment could either bring on tears or wrath.

"Fitz, I screwed up," said Olivia sniffling.

"What do you mean "you screwed up"?"

"I helped Mellie with her filibuster…"

"So you're the one who called in Susan to be Mellie's cavalry."

"You knew?"

"No. When I saw Susan enter the Senate Chamber, Cyrus and I figured someone must have asked her to intervene. Now that you tell me it was you, I'm not surprised."

"Are you angry? The fallout is going to be horrible. With Congress in recess for the holidays, government workers aren't going to get paid until Congress resumes."

"I'm upset but not angry. Anyway, being angry isn't going to help the situation. While government employees are going to be pissed about not getting their paychecks but the general public seems supportive of not having funding cuts to Planned Parenthood. Moving Planned Parenthood to the discretionary column on the spending bill was probably part of the crazy horsing trading that goes on in Congress when trying to get bills passed. I'm probably angrier about that."

"I don't suppose you could issue an executive order for the government employees to get paid while Congress is in recess."

"Can't. As the President, I have no authority in spending monies. That power lies with Congress. Come on, Livie, you should remember that from law school – Con Law I.

"Now that I'm pregnant, I'm forgetting things."

"I hope you aren't going to be using the baby as an excuse for memory lapses."

"Only if I need to," replied Olivia with a weak smile.

Olivia knew they needed to change the story about the filibuster quickly. She already could see the news stories of government employees having their holiday season ruined because they couldn't afford to buy gifts/presents for their kids because they weren't get paid because of the filibuster. "Fitz, we need to come up to with a plan…"

"Liv, at this point, it's all damage control. Score one for Mellie. We need to move on."

"I'm sorry…"

"Liv, you went to help Mellie because you believe the Planned Parenthood shouldn't be a discretionary spending item. There's no need for you to apologize."

"Yes but I also did it because I was angry with you. I have been so angry with the way I'm being treated since you moved me into the White House."

"I know I have had you in this "ornamental" role and I'm sorry about that. You are Olivia Pope, not some political Stepford wife," said Fitz in an agonized voice. "I am also sorry that I closed you out when Cyrus, Abby, and I were strategizing on how to deal with the filibuster. I shouldn't have dumped my personal baggage with Mellie on you. I am still working through my anger with the whole mess with your father being let out of prison. That the reason why I behaved the way I did."

"I know. I also made the choice of not speaking up because I wanted to make up for my screw up and now I only made it worse because of the filibuster."

"The situation is lousy but we have gotten through worse like the impeachment hearings."

"Fitz, about us…"

"There are things we need to work through but we are good. We are going to have a baby and we're getting married, and that is what matters to me," said Fitz as he stroked Olivia's nose with the side of his index finger with a big smile on his face.

"This is our start of jam, Vermont, and babies here in DC," he said before giving Olivia a kiss. After the kiss, Fitz said, "Why don't we get some sleep? I'll need to get back to the White House in a few hours but you don't need to rush back."

"But I need to. We have a wedding to plan…"

"There's no rush to plan a wedding now. Getting engaged buys us time from an optics perspective. I'm even fine with the idea of us getting married after the baby is born. I know there will be backlash but we can weathered through it."

"Fitz, we need to be practical. I don't want the footnote of your presidency to be about you having a love child. It would take away everything you have accomplished as President – the Brandon bill, equal pay, education reform, nuclear non-proliferation with Bandar. It wouldn't be right. With the fallout of the filibuster hanging over the White House, we can't afford any more bad optics, especially after the impeachment hearings."

Olivia then added, "We also need to think about our child. We don't want him or her to carry the burden of being labelled or tainted just because we wanted to take a stand on being a progressive couple while living in the White House You're still POTUS and there is still a level of "properness" that is expected."

"So when do you want to get marry?"

"Before the end of the year. I want us to be husband and wife when the new year starts. I know it sounds all of the sudden especially when I hesitated during your attempted proposal."

Fitz was stunned with Olivia's desire to get marry so soon. "Liv, are you sure you want to get marry this quickly? It's already the day before Christmas Eve. You are talking about us getting married in little more than a week's time."

Fitz knew Olivia well enough to know that her motivation could also be related to the filibuster mess. "Livie, I know you feel badly about the filibuster but I'm not going to let us and our baby be used as political capital to save the situation. I had plenty of that with Mellie…"

"We have to change the story about the filibuster. The news cycle will be about the filibuster shutting down government for the next few days but you will need some leverage to get Congress to act quickly to pass a spending bill once Congress is back in session. If you have the American people behind you, you can appeal to them to ask them get their Congressional reps and Senators to pass the spending bill. Us being married might help with your popularity. There are some people who will disapprove of us because of the race issue but a large percentage of the American public is behind us."

Olivia continued on, "You're right that our love for each other and our family are not for political capital but there are times we might have to use it for a political advantage, and this might be one of those times. This isn't like the impeachment hearings where it was a matter of political survivorship. With the impeachment hearings, us getting married felt so wrong because it wasn't what we wanted."

"And is this what you want? A quickie wedding on the heels of a less than well planned filibuster that was saved by smart thinking?" asked Fitz with a smirk.

"If you phrase it that way, no," replied Olivia with a laugh. "But when I was at that clinic and heard your voice reminding me of us, jam, Vermont, and babies, I know what I want."

Olivia shifted herself so she could look directly at Fitz's cerulean eyes and say, "I'm ready to go over the cliff for you and with you, Fitz," as she caressed his face.

Fitz looked back at Olivia's dark brown eyes and saw clarity that was never there before, he knew Olivia was ready to marry him and they didn't need to wait anymore. "And I'm going to go over the cliff for you and with you, Livie. Let's get married."

"New Year's Eve?" asked Olivia. "A small private ceremony with the people who are closest to us attending. We can issue a press announcement on New Year's Day or the day after that we got married."

"Yes. What about the baby? When do you want to tell people?"

"The people who are closest to us will put two and two together about us getting married so soon. They're going to ask to confirm their suspicions and we can tell I am but in the early stage and I still need to go through the medical evaluation. We can make a formal public announcement about the baby after we've dealt with the medical stuff – making sure that it's safe for me to be pregnant while dealing with PTSD and the baby is ok."

"That sounds reasonable."

Fitz then realized if Olivia was going to marry him, she would officially become First Lady. He knew one of the reasons why Olivia had been so hesitant about marrying him and becoming First Lady was OPA. She didn't want to leave her "gladiators" and give up a successful business that she worked hard to build up.

"Liv, what's going to happen to OPA? As much I would love the idea of America having a First Lady who had a professional life outside of being First Lady, I'm not sure if that's going to be possible for you. OPA handles high profile clients, some of which are politicians and world leaders. This might cause conflict of interests or create possible optic problems for the White House and/or the US government."

"You're right about me running OPA while being First Lady could create some sticky situations for the White House and the government. We had a taste of it when we were dealing with the Caledonian royal family. I don't mind being the hostess with the mostess for state dinners and other types of White House events, but I need to be doing something else as well. As First Lady, I can take up social issues or concerns that are important to America and to the world. I know you don't have a lot of time left in your term but I could use that time to make a difference. Once your term is over, OPA can open up for business as usual. Who knows, OPA might get extra business because I was a former First Lady," said Olivia with a slight chuckle.

As Olivia was talking to him, Fitz already had an image in his mind of his Livie "gladiating" as First Lady to make the world a better place. Heaven help those who tried to stop her from correcting an injustice…

"Fitz, I want my team to come to the White House to work with me. I know there will be opposition because of their past…"

"It's fine, Livie. You need to have your gladiators with you if you are going to take on the world. Anyway, your team has done a lot for the White House. Instead of them being on retainer, they'll just be on the regular payroll."

Olivia laughed at Fitz's comment. "I'll make it happen for you," reassured Fitz.

"What about Cyrus? I'm worry he might try to block my team while dealing with White House bureaucracy. He and I haven't been getting along after the impeachment hearings. We've been in a turf battle concerning you."

"I'll handle Cyrus. I know the two of you have been butting heads. I should have addressed the problem between you and Cyrus right from the start."

"I know Cyrus is acting the way he is because he doesn't want to lose power and I've been off my game because of the PTSD and being unhappy about our situation."

"We'll make things better. You'll get help with the PTSD and we are working on "us". I also know something else is bothering Cyrus and I'll talk with him." Fitz paused before continuing, "Cyrus is bound to ask if you are pregnant since we are getting married so soon and not bothering with a formal wedding that is expected of a world leader."

"He probably will and how he handles the news is up to him. If he was smart, he would take it as another form of political capital. The country gets another "America's Baby". As I said before, our baby shouldn't be political capital but we have to deal with the reality of our situation as First Couple."

"You're right. Regardless of whatever crap gets thrown at us, I want this to work for us. I want us to have jam, Vermont, and babies while we are America's First Couple."

"So do I," said Olivia. Fitz took Olivia in his arms and kissed her.

Couple of hours later, Olivia and Fitz got back to the White House and settled into the Residence master bedroom for some more sleep. Fitz woke up around 6AM to get ready to start his day. As Fitz slipped on his suit blazer and was about to leave the master bedroom, he heard Olivia calling his name. Olivia was still in bed and just woken up. Fitz moved away from the door and sat down on the edge of the side of the bed where Olivia was lying.

"Hi," said Fitz before giving Olivia a kiss. "Go back to sleep, Livie. You need it," he said as he stroked her cheek.

"Just a little bit longer but I have to call my team to ask them to meet me here at the Residence so I can talk to them. I also need to talk with Abby. I'll call her to ask her to come up to the Residence to see me as soon as she can."

"And I'll talk with Cyrus. Since tomorrow is Christmas Eve, there are calls I need to make today to organize things that we talked about last night."

Fitz hesitated before saying in a gentle voice, "Liv, you can still change your mind if you want to. I'll be okay if you do. I just want you to be sure this is what you want."

"I'm not changing my mind. I want this and I want us." said Olivia as she sat up to kiss Fitz. "I love you and I want to marry you," she said after their kiss.

"And I love you, too and I want to marry you," responded Fitz with an emotional voice. "If we are getting married on New Year's Eve, we have a lot of planning to do today because of the Christmas holiday."

"Never fear, Fitz. Olivia Pope and her team of gladiators will make it happen."

"I don't doubt it."

"Remember what I said. Over a cliff."

"Over a cliff, Livie," Fitz said with a smile before giving Olivia another kiss and leaving the bedroom.


	4. The POTUS Handles

**Author's Note:**

 **The American Victims Trauma Association is a fictional organization that is the invention of Aaron Sorkin, the creative genius behind** _ **The**_ _ **West Wing.**_

 **The real-life Director of National Institutes of Health is Francis Collins, MD, PhD, who was appointed to the position by President Obama.**

* * *

As Fitz made his way from the Residence to the Oval Office, he was saluted or greeted by Marine guards and Secret Service agents. Fitz put on his best game face to hide his elation that he was going to be marrying the love of his life in nine days and to be a father again. If he had his way, he would be standing outside the Truman Balcony and shouting it out aloud for all of DC to hear him.

It was still early and Charlotte, Fitz's secretary hadn't arrived in the office yet, Fitz chose to work in the President's private study which was adjacent to the Oval Office. While the Oval was known as POTUS's official office and where official meetings were held, the President also had a private study next to the Oval. The private study served as a private work room and a quiet retreat to get away from the hustle and bustle of the Oval.

Before settling behind the private study desk, Fitz knew that a coffee service, yogurt and fresh fruit had been brought into the Oval for him to have as his early breakfast, to be followed with a plate of eggs during mid-morning that would that hold him until lunch time. After going into the Oval to get a cup of coffee and his yogurt and fruit, Fitz returned to the private study and sat down at the desk to have his early breakfast. While he would prefer to have breakfast with Olivia before starting his day, it wasn't always possible when there are days he would have to start at the crack of dawn. He would definitely work on having more breakfast time with Olivia once they were married.

Since Fitz already knew part of his day would be spent on damage control concerning the filibuster, he focused his attention on the happier matter of getting Olivia's wedding ring which he would need by New Year's Eve for their wedding. He already decided a long time ago he would give her a ring with an inscription when they got married. In his mind, it was never a question as to whether they were going to be married but rather when they were going to be married.

Fitz turned on the desktop computer and after the computer finished starting up, he went onto the Tiffany's website to look over their collection of diamond wedding bands. Fitz knew Tiffany's had a store in Chevy Chase so it would be possible for him to have the ring in time for New Year's Eve. As he browsed through the online collection, he found two different rings that interested him. He would ask Charlotte to call the Chevy Chase store to arrange for a private showing, either him going to the store or to have a store representative come to the White House. With either option, Tiffany's would need to sign a non-disclosure agreement about the ring purchase. He also knew the store would also try to present alternative options and he was open to seeing other rings. What was most important to him was having the inscription on the ring.

The next thing on Fitz's to do list concerning Olivia related to her PTSD. There was the matter of finding a discreet therapist or counselor to help her to address the problem. The White House had a liaison with the American Trauma Victims Association or ATVA, a group that the federal government called upon to provide counseling in situations of catastrophic events, such as mass shootings or natural disaster. Fitz remembered the group had been asked to come to the White House to provide counseling and support to the staff during his assassination attempt and to cope with sudden loss of Britta Kagen who had been an unintended casualty of the attempt. Fitz checked the time and saw it was 7:30AM. Since he never interacted with the AVTA White House liaison, he didn't know if 7:30AM would be too early to call. He decided to hold off to making that call until later.

The other call Fitz needed to make concerning Olivia was the issue whether it would be safe for her to be pregnant while dealing with PTSD. As POTUS, he had at his disposal a wealth of medical and scientific experts at the National Institutes of Health or the NIH, which was regarded as one of the world's foremost medical research centers. The NIH housed the best and brightest medical and scientific talents, as well as provided research funding to the best and brightest medical and scientific minds around the country and in the world. The NIH's expertise ran deep both internally and externally with it external research funding program. Since the Director of NIH was the person who he appointed to the position, he knew he could call her, Dr. Francine Connors at 7:30AM on December 23rd and she would take his call. Fitz picked up the handset off the telephone on the desk and asked the White House operator to call the NIH Director. He waited a few minutes before the call went through.

"…Good morning, Francine, it's Fitzgerald Grant…"

"…Yes, it's me. It's not a joke…"

"…I'm fine. How is your family?"…

"…Congratulations on your son's early decision to Dartmouth. My Karen will be getting ready for the college application process next year, so I'm bracing for the craziness. I'll give you a call next year to get some advice on how to deal with it…"

"…That's what I like about you. Cut to the chase. The reason why I'm calling is I want you to put together a group of experts on PTSD and pregnancy for a private meeting. Whoever you get will have to agree to sign a non-disclosure form. If you can put the group together for a meeting in early January that would be ideal. Sooner the better…

"…I know with the holiday season getting hold of people will be hard but time is of the essence. That's the reason why I'm calling today so give you some lead time to work on this…"

"…An in-person meeting would be best. I prefer talking to someone in person, especially if I'm going to be asking questions…"

"…We'll come to the NIH. Call me as soon as you have assembled the group and we'll deal with dates and reimbursement for travel and accommodations…"

"…Thanks, Francine. I appreciate this. Have a great Christmas with your family and Happy New Year to you and your family as well," said Fitz as he ended his call with the NIH Director.

 _Even though I can't get Congress to do anything or be able to stop a filibuster, at least I can do this,"_ thought Fitz as he placed the handset back on the phone cradle and this gave him some measure of comfort that he was taking care of his Livie. Since the meeting with the medical and scientific experts were for a private personal matter, Fitz knew it wasn't appropriate for taxpayer dollars to pay for the experts' travel expenses to DC and their accommodation during their stay in DC so it would be a personal cost to him but in his mind it a cost that was worth every penny to make sure that Olivia's health and well being was ensured.

As Fitz finished eating his yogurt and fruit, he heard the door to the Oval Office open and footsteps approaching the private study. Judging from the sound of the footsteps, he knew it was Cyrus. When Cyrus entered the private study, Fitz saw Cyrus's exasperated expression. No doubt Cyrus was angry and frustrated about the filibuster and if Cyrus had his way, he would be making Mellie's life miserable.

"Good morning, Mr. President."

"Good morning, Cyrus. Would you like some coffee before you start…"

"I'm fine, sir. I've called the legislative affairs people and we'll be meeting at 11 to deal with damage control. The timing of all of this sucks…"

"I know, Cyrus. But we'll deal with it the best we can. Anyway, it's Christmas. We should be enjoying the holiday," said Fitz trying to placate Cyrus. Fitz then continued, "Cyrus, we need to sit down and talk. I have something to tell you. Why don't we sit on the sofa in the Oval?"

"Fine, sir."

As Fitz got up from his chair, he took his coffee cup and his empty bowl of yogurt and fruit before walking out of the private study into the Oval. Fitz set down his empty bowl on the serving cart and poured more coffee in his cup while Cyrus waited him. After Fitz was done, the two walked over to the sitting area. At the sitting area, Cyrus sat on one sofa while Fitz sat on the one opposite him as he set down the coffee cup on the coffee table.

Fitz saw no reason to be hesitant in telling Cyrus the news and said directly, "Cyrus, Olivia and I are getting married."

Fitz sat and gauged Cyrus's reaction to the news. From what Fitz could observe, Cyrus's facial expression suggested that Cyrus was feeling his day had gone from being lousy to horrible.

Cyrus waited to speak and when he did speak, he managed to say, "Well, I suppose congratulations are in order, sir."

"Thank you, Cyrus."

"Are you planning to marry while you are still in office or when you leave office?"

"While I'm in office. In fact, Olivia and I have already decided on the date. New Year's Eve."

"New Year's Eve!?" exclaimed Cyrus. "That's only nine days away! Why the sudden rush?"

Then Cyrus got up from the sofa and paced while he shouted, "Oh my God, Olivia is pregnant! Of all the irresponsible…What, did she forget to take the Pill?...And what were you trying to do, show off that you can still…"

Fitz knew he had to stop Cyrus's tirade before he had a chance to get started. "Cyrus, enough! Sit down so we can discuss this."

Cyrus took a deep breath to calm down before sitting down again. Cyrus looked at Fitz and realized if he didn't play ball on the matter he was going to be the losing end.

"Yes, Olivia is pregnant but she is in the early stage and will be seeing a doctor soon to make sure everything is fine with her and the baby. Olivia getting pregnant is only irresponsible if it's something we shouldn't have let happen, and in our case, what happened is right. I'm no longer married. Olivia and I love each other and plan to have a life together. As part of having that life together includes us having a family."

Fitz took a breath before continuing, "Cyrus, I know you and Olivia have been stepping into each other. I've been watching the two of you and I take responsibility for not intervening. Cyrus, you have to accept Olivia isn't going anywhere and with her becoming the First Lady, you are going to have to re-learn to work with her. I vaguely recalled a time when the two of you were thick as thieves so hopefully you might remember those times. Not to mention there was the time you telling Olivia that she would need to take over as White House Chief of Staff when we were dealing with the possible threat of the FBI hauling your ass in for covering up Daniel Douglas Langston's murder. "

"Yes, sir," responded Cyrus with a somewhat chastened voice.

"Just to let you know, Olivia also acknowledges her part in the two of you not getting along. Olivia has been unhappy and I'm responsible for that. We are working on resolving the problem."

While Fitz knew the other reason for Olivia's behavior was the PTSD, he didn't want to violate Olivia's privacy by telling Cyrus that Olivia was suffering from PTSD. Olivia should be one disclosing it to her friends and to those who she wished share it with, not him.

Fitz then looked at his old friend sympathetically and said, "Cyrus, I also know you are trying to figure out what your next act is going to be after my term is over. We've been together for a long time. From the time when I ran for governor of California to getting me here at the White House. At this point, there is no identifiable candidate or a candidate that is credible to you for you to throw your support to help him or her get elected so you can stay here when I leave. So, right now you are holding onto every ounce of power you are able to and carrying on with your usual antics to maintain your leverage. I understand. Being normal without power isn't you and to be honest, you wouldn't survive."

"You're right," admitted Cyrus. When he got kicked out of the White House by Fitz, he had been a mess and Michael trying to pull him out of it. Cyrus knew resigning from the White House wasn't an option despite Olivia becoming First Lady. He couldn't be a stay-at-home dad for Ella. Fitz called a spade a spade - he wasn't cut out to be a normal person.

Cyrus knew he needed to play nicely with Olivia if he was going survive at the White House. Cyrus was a smart political animal and in order for him to survive, he needed to know what the playground was going to look like for him and Olivia. "Sir, with Olivia becoming First Lady, what's going to happen?"

"What do you mean?"

"What's Olivia going to be doing as First Lady? I'm presuming she's not going to be ornamental like she has been since moving in."

"She's not. Olivia will do the hostess role but she also wants to take on an activist role. She's interested in having her own policy initiatives to work on which I am happy to support. If Olivia has her own policy initiatives, she will be pursuing interests that will occupy her attention and which will allow her to do what she is good at, fixing things. With that said, I believe by supporting her policy initiatives, it will create a win-win situation all around."

Cyrus picked up on what Fitz was saying. If Olivia was doing her thing, hopefully over in the East Wing which was where the First Lady's Office was located, she was less likely to be over in the West Wing. Basically, Olivia was going to have her own playground.

However, Fitz wanted to caution Cyrus that Olivia wasn't going to be pushed to the wayside, either. "Since Olivia will be my wife and I value her intelligence, judgment, and savviness, I will be talking to her and asking her for her opinion on matters."

"Understood, Mr. President." Before he and Olivia were engaged in the turf battle over Fitz and the Oval, Cyrus also sought Olivia's opinion and counsel. Hell, it was Olivia's tough love and savviness that saved his career when the scandal broke out about his relationship with Michael.

"Olivia wants her team to come to the White House to work with her. They are going to need guidance and support to help navigate the White House," said Fitz as he gave Cyrus a look to let him know Olivia's team will be joining the White House staff and he needed to make this happen.

While Cyrus knew the optics of having a former fugitive, an emotionally and psychologically scarred former secret spy-trained killer now computer hacker and a disgraced community organizer be part of a First Lady's staff would be troubling, but he also he knew Olivia's team had more than one occasion bailed out the White House. With Olivia as the new First Lady, Olivia's team would be loyal to her and to the White House. For Cyrus, loyalty to the White House was first and foremost. Cyrus also knew for the former fugitive Quinn Perkins, it was the Cytron-Defiance scandal that put her in that situation in the first place and to which he had been a participant in the scandal. When looking at the big picture of Olivia's team working at the White House, there was no value in blocking them from working and there might even some advantage in having them at the White House.

"I'll help to transition them in. I'll ask Red and Ethan to help them out, as well."

"Good."

"Is there anything else, sir?"

"Yes. I'm going to need a best man for the wedding. What do you say, Cyrus?"

"I would be honored, Mr. President."

"Excellent. Michael and Ella are invited," said Fitz as he and Cyrus got up from the sofas and walked towards the Resolute Desk.

"Thank you. Where will be the wedding be held and at what time, sir?" asked Cyrus as they stood in front of the Resolute Desk.

"Actually, Olivia and I need to decide on that."

"The two of you will need to decide soon so I can arrange for a judge to perform the ceremony. The marriage license that was obtained for your first wedding ceremony with Olivia remains valid. Under DC law, once a marriage license is issued it remains valid."

"Good to know."

Given Olivia's past history, Cyrus had a nagging concern that Olivia might try to run at the last minute. "Sir, I know this is a happy moment for you, that is, you are finally getting to marry Olivia after all these years of waiting, but we also know Olivia's history…"

"Are you concern that Olivia is going to do a runaway bride on me again?"

"Yes, sir. While I may not always act in your interest as a friend but I am a friend and I don't want you to be disappointed."

"Thank you for your concern, Cyrus. Just to let you know, it was Olivia who proposed and said we should get marry on New Year's Eve…"

"Olivia proposed and said New Year's Eve?" asked Cyrus.

"Yes."

"Well, if that is the case, the President of the United States will be marrying the world greatest fixer on New Year's Eve. Congratulations, Mr. President," said Cyrus as he extended his hand to Fitz for a congratulatory handshake. Fitz took it and as they shook hands they were both laughing.

After their laughter subsided, Cyrus broached the delicate question, "Sir, does Mellie know you and Olivia are getting married on New Year's Eve?"

"No. I or Olivia and I will tell her as a courtesy," replied Fitz.

"I'm sure she will appreciate to be informed of the matter," said Cyrus as broke out with a large smile which Fitz knew it meant that Cyrus's day just got better.


	5. Abby Wedding Planner Whelan

**Author's Note:**

 **I always thought that out of the OPA gladiators, Abby would be the domestic goddess amongst them. I might be biased with this thought because Abby is a terrific baker (from 1x06).**

 **In canon 5x09, Abby tells the press corps that there would be no briefing and but when she sees Olivia moving out, she has to do a briefing. In this fanfic, Abby is doing a press corps briefing because of the filibuster and under the Cyrus's instruction – after all, do you think Cyrus is going to let Mellie have the upper hand and have the White House stay silent…**

* * *

It was nearly 10AM when Abby made her way up to the Residence to see Olivia. Before Abby arrived at the White House, she already received a call from Olivia on her cell phone asking her to drop by to see her at the Residence as soon she was free in the morning. Abby had told the press corps last night there would be no press briefing but she got a call from Cyrus in the late evening to hold a press corps briefing to deal with filibuster damage control. The thought was if the White House doesn't say something, it is letting Congress steam roll them with the successful filibuster.

There was the last minute scramble to get notice to the press corps about the briefing and the communications and press teams spent the night getting ready to do damage control. Abby knew her morning would be crazy with handling the press corps briefing and other media outlets' questions and comments about the filibuster and was happy that Olivia wasn't in an immediate rush in needing to see her.

After dropping off her handbag and briefcase in her office, she immediately headed over to the Oval Office to see Fitz, or the President, as she refers to him as. When she entered the Oval, Fitz and Cyrus were already talking but judging from their expressions, it seemed like they were discussing something that was lighthearted which lead her to think it wasn't about the filibuster. When Fitz and Cyrus did take notice of her, they greeted with a hello and good morning and three of them proceeded ahead to come up with comment points for the press corps and the media outlets about the filibuster. The iterative point she would be making was the President was looking forward to working with Congress once it resumes session after the New Year to have a spending bill passed. It was Fitz's message to Congress that a spending bill was going be passed when they resumed session and he would see to it.

When speaking to Olivia, Abby was told to find her in the Residence master bedroom. When she arrived in the master bedroom, she saw Olivia lying on the sofa in a semi-fetal position with her eyes closed. She also saw a plate of dry toast and coffee mug filled with tea next to plate on the coffee table

Abby immediately rushed to Olivia and asked in an extremely concerned voice, "Liv, what's wrong? Are you sick? Do you want me to call the White House doctor?"

"I'm all right, Abs. No need to call the White House doctor," replied Olivia as she slowly stretched herself out so she could sit up on the sofa.

"All right. You had me scared. Seeing Olivia Pope lying on a couch looking sick is not normal."

"Well, you are going to see more of it during the next couple of months. At least I hope it will only be for the next couple of months."

"What are you talking about?"

Olivia gestured to Abby to sit next to her on the sofa. After Abby sat down, Olivia took Abby's hand and said, "You are going to become an Aunt Abby in a few months," said Olivia with a slight smile.

"Oh my God, Liv, you're pregnant. How?"

"Abs, really? I thought you already knew where babies came from."

"Of course, I know where babies come from. I meant when did it happen. Does the President know?

"I've haven't gone to the doctor to find out how far along I am but I'm early. I did a home pregnancy test a week ago when I realized I missed my period and started to feel sick. And yes, Fitz does know."

"Is he ok with it?" Abby then paused before saying, "Of course, he's ok with it. He has been wanting the two of you to be together and a baby is just another step to it. But are you ok with it? I know the idea of getting married and becoming First Lady doesn't exactly appeal to you. You referred to it as a form of prison."

Since Olivia regarded Abby to be her closest friend, maybe even her best friend, she knew she could tell Abby what she planned to do but hoped Abby wouldn't judge her for it.

"At first I wasn't, Abs. In fact, I was a clinic last night planning to have an abortion when I changed my mind."

"Wow. When Olivia Pope makes up her mind, she follows through it."

"In general, she does but lately, I have been making some crappy decisions and had I followed through with my original decision last night, there was no way of undoing it. Usually, if I do something and if turns out to be wrong, I'm able to fix it afterwards but with something like this, I wouldn't be able to."

"You're right about that. So, are you ok with the idea about having a baby and being a mother?"

"Yeah, I am now. But this isn't to say I'm not scared because I am. I don't have great role models for parents so I'm worry that I'm going to screw this kid up. Even though Fitz talked about us having kids and I wanted it too, but the actual reality of becoming a mother and what it meant hit me when I found I was pregnant. That's one of the reasons why I was planning to have the abortion was because I kept thinking I couldn't be a mother."

"What made you change your mind?"

"Fitz. I heard him reminding me of our dream of kids, jam, and Vermont."

"Jam and Vermont?"

"It's something private between Fitz and me."

"Ok. Maybe one day you'll share with me," said Abby with a smile.

"The other person who helped me to change my decision was Mellie."

"Oh, God, don't even mention her name to me. Her filibuster win is putting the communications and press teams into overdrive over the Christmas holidays."

"I'm sorry about that."

"It's not your fault…"

"It is, Abby. I helped Mellie with the filibuster."

"What?! How?

"I called Susan to tell her to help Mellie with the filibuster. I did it without thinking the government was going to shut down and employees weren't going to get paid because of it. That's what I mean by making crappy decisions. I told Fitz about it."

"Is he angry with you for helping Mellie?"

"No. He knows I did it partly because I believe Planned Parenthood shouldn't be a discretionary spending item. Even when I admitted to him that I helped Mellie because I was pissed at him for the way he has been treating me, he also knew the way he has been treating me wasn't right either. We need to work through the mess I made when I conspired with Mellie to let my father out of prison."

"I'm glad the two of you are finally talking about things." Abby hesitated before saying, "Liv, does he know that you were planning to have an abortion? I suppose, he doesn't really need to know since you changed your mind."

"I told him. I didn't want him to find out later. He handled it pretty well and told me he was happy I changed my mind."

Olivia took a breath before saying, "I also told Fitz I have PTSD from the kidnapping and I need help. Especially now with me being pregnant. I need to make sure I'm ok for this baby."

Abby felt tears welling up in her eyes because her best friend was in trouble. She held out her arms to hug Olivia and said, "I'm here for you, Olivia. Remember, I'm your gladiator."

"I know. I'm your gladiator, too," said Olivia with also tears in her eyes as she hugged Abby back.

The two of them broke away from their hug and wiped away their tears with their hands. After they regained their composure, Olivia said, "Abby, I'm going to need your help…"

"Anything, Liv. What do you need?"

"I need a wedding planner. Fitz and I are getting married and I need someone to help me plan my wedding. You have experience planning a wedding…"

Olivia was referring to Abby have been previously married to Charles "Chip" Putney, the former Republican candidate for the Virginia Senate seat. Chip who came from a prominent political family was also a wife-beater and had it not been for Olivia, Abby would have been another domestic violence statistic, either by staying in the abusive marriage or ended up dead.

While Abby was happy to hear the news about Olivia and Fitz getting married, she also knew Olivia and her inclination to run, and after what happened with the wedding ceremony in the Oval, Abby wanted to make sure Olivia was ready for this.

"Liv, are you sure you want to get married? I mean, you and the President don't have to get married even though the two of you are having a baby…"

"Abby, you aren't suggesting that the President of the United States have a love child with his girlfriend?"

"Look, the optics will look bad but I'm your friend and I want you to do what is right for you, so we should screw the optics."

Olivia laughed and knew Abby was a true friend when she made her comment. Abby's role as White House Press Secretary was to protect the White House and the President and she was willing toss aside the Fitz's presidency for her.

"I want to marry Fitz, Abs. I was the one who proposed. I told him that I wanted to get marry on New Year's Eve."

Abby knew if Olivia was the one who proposed it meant Olivia wanted to get marry. "New Year's Eve?! That's only nine days away and we lose Christmas Day for planning. We might be able to get some stuff done tomorrow even though it's Christmas Eve if we get an early enough start."

"Abs, it doesn't have to be an elaborate. I just want something nice. A step up from the no-frills Oval wedding that was planned."

"If I remember correctly, you were the one who didn't want a dress, flowers, and vows. So do you want a dress, flowers, and vows this time?"

"I want a dress but not a fancy bridal gown, if that makes sense. I would like to have a bouquet this time and some floral arrangements but I don't want it to be a botanical garden. I'm still on the fence about the vows."

Olivia gave Abby her "Olivia Pope" look when she said, "Abby, Fitz and I want to keep the wedding under wraps until we announce we are officially married."

"That rules out having the wedding at the White House. The place is filled with people, even over the holiday season." Abby paused for moment then said, "How about Blair House? We don't have any foreign dignitaries visiting at the moment and the staff is only present where there is a dignitary staying. We can plan and have the wedding there in secret. How much input does the President want to have in planning?"

"Abs, he's the President of the United States, leader of the free world, and a man. How much input do you think he wants to have?

"Probably not much. He probably just wants to be told place and time. But we're still going to need help…

"There's Quinn, Huck, and Marcus."

"Do they know what's happening?"

"Not yet. I've asked them to come to the White House to see me so I can talk to them."

"I think we can pull it off. After all, we are gladiators."

"That's what I told Fitz."

"We'll need to figure out a way to get the dresses to you since you can't go to a salon or shop to buy a dress. That would be a huge tip off to the media. But the other stuff we can do under the radar, like the flowers and food. What kind of food we have depends on the time. What time were you thinking?"

"I was thinking in the late morning or in the afternoon. We would need a judge to perform the ceremony and it wouldn't be right to keep the judge away from his or her family on New Year's Eve, even if he or she is officiating the wedding of the President."

"If it was late morning or early afternoon, we can do a lunch reception and not bother with a cocktail hour. If the ceremony was in the late afternoon around 4PM, food would be more elaborate. There would be a cocktail hour to be followed with a dinner service. Do you want to think about it?

Yeah. I think this something I should talk to Fitz about. We might need to work around the judge's schedule."

"Ok. How many people?"

"Just the people closest to Fitz and me. For me, it's you, Quinn, Huck, and Marcus. Leo is invited and if Charlie is around, he's invited, too. Fitz will ask Cyrus to be his best man. So Michael and Ella will be there as well. We want Karen and Teddy to be there. David has been part of our troupe so we'll be inviting him. I'd like to invite Susan. I guess if Susan gets invited, we'll need to invite Liz North. I guess she has to be the "political" must invite."

"How about your father?"

"I need to let him know that I'm getting married. We also need to let Mellie know. Letting my father and Mellie know will be a courtesy. It would be wrong for them to hear about it for the first time through a press announcement. I suppose it is one thing not to invite an ex-spouse but it's a whole other matter when not inviting your father."

"You and the President can decide what to do about your father."

"Yeah," said Olivia with a bit of anxiety. "Abs, would you be offended if I didn't have bridesmaids. The wedding is so small it doesn't make sense to. If Fitz and I were having the large splashy wedding that everyone expects a sitting President to have, I would definite have you, Quinn, and Karen as bridesmaids, and Ella would be flower girl."

"And Teddy would be the ring bearer," added Abby. "Liv, it's your wedding, you can do whatever you want. As your "wedding planner", my job is to help you make it happen. We only have eight and half days to plan the wedding of the President of the United States and the world greatest fixer, so we better get a move on it."


	6. A White House in Danger

**Author's Note:**

 **Thank you fellow fanfic readers for your interest in my story. A special thanks to those who following and favorited the story.**

 **I didn't watch the season finale because I didn't want to know what sort of chicanery the world of SR and SP had in mind. I will read a synopsis to get a sense as to what happened so I can incorporate any elements that might be relevant to this story.**

 **Warning: As part of this fanfic will be a Suvid or Dasan (depending on your preference) pairing. However, unlike canon, they will find happiness.**

* * *

While Olivia and Abby were planning a secret presidential wedding upstairs in the Residence, Fitz was in the Oval staring out the window. He was using the down time he had before the meeting the White House legislative affairs team to look out at the South Lawn. Even though it was winter, the South Lawn was kept trimmed. If the weather forecast was correct, the South Lawn would be blanketed in a layer of snow tomorrow. Fitz never appreciated snow until he was living in California permanently. He experienced snow while living on the East Coast when he attended Yale and Harvard Law School, as well as in Oxford when he was a Rhodes Scholar and accepted it part of the weather pattern of those geographical areas. However, after settling back in California and living in year-round temperate weather, he realized how much he missed the snow. If it wasn't too cold, he was thinking he and Olivia could bundle up and sit on the Truman Balcony and watch the falling snow. Snow on Christmas Eve would be the perfect way for Olivia and him to celebrate their first official Christmas together.

Fitz hadn't expected the day before Christmas Eve to be a heavy work day unless there was a national or international crisis/emergency taking place. However, the filibuster changed that. While the filibuster couldn't be categorized as a level 1 emergency where national security and/or human life was at imminent threat, but it was serious given the consequences of a government shutdown with hard working government employees not getting paid.

Fitz was happy that his day so far hadn't entirely been spent dealing with the filibuster but taking care of things relating to Olivia and their upcoming wedding. Fitz knew he got through to Cyrus when Cyrus was in Chief of Staff persona in addressing the practical matters of the wedding such as getting a judge and letting him know that the marriage license they already had was still valid, as well as working to make Olivia's team transition to being part of the White House staff as easy as possible. However, Fitz knew what made Cyrus's day would be Mellie soon finding out about the wedding and how that would burst Mellie's bubble with her triumphant filibuster.

He also got in contact with the American Trauma Victims Association or ATVA White House liaison about finding Olivia a therapist to take care of her PTSD. The liaison initially offered to send someone on the day after Christmas to do an initial assessment with Olivia to determine the severity of the problem before referring her to a trained therapist, however, Fitz asked for the initial assessment to be done after the New Year. Fitz knew Olivia would be dealing with wedding plans between now until New Year's Eve. Also, if the assessment was done after the New Year, Olivia would officially be the First Lady and she would have the highest level of confidentiality and privacy in regards to the assessment and treatment of her PTSD.

The matter that most important to him concerning the wedding was Charlotte arranging for him to have a private showing of wedding rings at the Tiffany's store in Chevy Chase. Although he considered the option of having a store representative come to White House, he decided to go to the store in person. He wanted the ring to be a surprise for Olivia.

Fitz checked his watch and saw that he had another fifteen minutes of free time before the meeting with the legislative affairs team. He already knew the meeting would be focused on what kind trades and deals would have to be struck with Congress to have the spending bill passed but also to have Planned Parenthood moved off the discretionary spending list. No doubt Cyrus would be focused on how Mellie even come up with the idea of the filibuster. While Cyrus regarded Mellie as being smart, he didn't think Mellie had the political canniness to think of a filibuster on her own.

Fitz was already imaging Mellie's filibuster and Olivia's assistance with it a topic of Grant family lore with future generations and depending on the grandchildren and great-grandchildren from which marriage, how the story would be told would differ…

 _When Grandma Mellie was a US Senator from Virginia and Grandpa Fitz was President, Grandma started a filibuster to prevent Planned Parenthood from ending up as a discretionary spending item on a spending bill. However, Grandma hadn't thought through how hard the filibuster was going to be and was about to pee on the Senate floor when Vice President Ross came in to save her. At the time, Grandma and Grandpa were divorced but Grandpa hadn't married his second wife Olivia yet. It turned out it was Olivia who saved Grandma Mellie from peeing on the Senate floor by calling the Vice President herself…_

 _When Grandad Fitz was President, his first wife Mellie who had been a US Senator from Virginia started a filibuster to protect Planned Parenthood funding. Grandad and Mellie were already divorced at the time but he and Granny Livie weren't married yet. Anyway, Mellie hadn't properly planned for the filibuster and was about to pee on the Senate floor when she got rescued by Vice President Ross. It turned out it was Granny Livie who called the Vice President to save Mellie's ass…_

Since Fitz wasn't sure if he was going to be alive and well to tell his version of the story to at least his grandchildren, he was going to need to write down his personal account of the filibuster so he could pass it onto the next couple generations of Grants…

 _When I was President and Grandma Mellie was a US Senator from Virginia, she started a filibuster to protect funding for women's health. By then, Grandma Mellie and I were divorced but I hadn't married Granny Livie yet. Grandma Mellie had no clue what a 16 hour filibuster would be like. She almost had an accident on the Senate floor had it not been for Granny Livie who called my Vice President, Susan Ross to come in to rescue Grandma Mellie so she could go to the bathroom. Between the three of them, they shut down the US government and government employees didn't get paid over the Christmas-New Year holidays and I, the President of the United States, the most powerful man in the world, leader of the free world couldn't stop them…_

Mellie, Olivia, and Susan working together on the filibuster had to be several steps above the Ensign Amy Martin's rape case. While the Amy Martin case was both politically embarrassing for the government and military but it didn't shut down the US government. Fitz just accepted the fact he was surrounded by women who were very capable in playing the game of politics, and at times a dangerous one and he had to be prepared to deal with the consequences when they did.

Fitz heard the door to Oval being opened and when he turned his head, he saw a Secret Service agent was holding the door open and Susan standing at the doorway looking hesitant about coming in. He knew Susan probably feeling skittish about coming into his office after realizing the consequences of the filibuster. "Susan, please come in."

He saw Susan taking a deep breath before walking in. As Susan walked slowly to him by the window, she said, "Mr. President, I'm so sorry for what happened with the filibuster. I was so focused on protecting Planned Parenthood's funding status, I hadn't realized the federal government would be shut down if the filibuster was successful."

"It's fine, Susan. We just need to do damage control."

"I admit I never read through the bill."

"No one does. It's over a thousand pages long. I have to give Mellie credit for going over it though."

"As the President of the Senate, I only vote if there is a tie and since there was no concern about a tie for the spending bill, I hadn't read the bill. I hadn't realized there was a change in the funding categorization for Planned Parenthood in the bill."

"I'm sure it was part of the last minute deal making that took place behind closed doors in order to get the votes for the spending bill. Even though you are the President of the Senate, you don't control the Senate. The legislative affairs team will be coming in shortly to meet to strategize. We are going to need to have game plan once Congress resumes session after the New Year. Why don't you stay for the meeting, Susan?"

"Are you sure? After what I had done, I'm surprise you don't want to boot me out of your office."

"You operated on the matter of principle and you can't be faulted for that. Anyway, just between you and me, I want to say thank you for helping Mellie out. Even though she and I still have issues, she is still the mother of my children and if she had done something embarrassing on the Senate floor, it would have been hard for her to live it down with our children."

"I understand, Mr. President."

"Would you like some coffee while we wait?"

"No thanks. I already had some."

Fitz then gestured to Susan to sit on the sofa. Susan sat on one while he took the one opposite her.

"Since you are here, there is some news I want to share with you. Olivia and I are getting married."

"Oh, that's wonderful, Mr. President," said Susan sincerely. Even though she had given Fitz a difficult time when his affair with Olivia went public, Susan also knew Fitz truly loved Olivia and risked his political career when he made no attempts to dismiss the relationship publicly.

"So, will there be a White House wedding or are the two of getting married after you leave office?" asked Susan. "I think the last sitting President to get married while in office was Woodrow Wilson and the last President to get married in the White House was Grover Cleveland."

"Olivia and I are planning a New Year's Eve wedding."

Susan gave a slight choke cough when she heard New Year's Eve. "You don't mean this coming New Year's Eve, do you sir?"

"Yes, this coming New Year's Eve. Which is only nine days away," replied Fitz with a broad smile.

Susan was both book smart with a PhD and common sense smart, which was a trait that book smart people didn't always have. One plausible reason came to Susan's mind as to why a sitting President would have a quickie wedding. Susan looked at Fitz as she carefully tried to organize the words in her head to ask the question she wanted ask. She knew she was already treading on thin ice because of the filibuster, she didn't want to make the problem worse.

"Sir, may I ask a highly personal question?" Susan asked thinking it would be her safest way in to ask the question she really wanted to ask.

Fitz knew Susan was trying to be polite and carefully avoiding putting her foot in her mouth which she was characteristically known to do. To spare Susan from beating around the bush, Fitz came out and said, "Yes, Olivia is pregnant."

Susan was surprised with such an open announcement. "Oh, all right…Mr. President…Thank you for letting me know…Congratulations, sir," said Susan as she fumbled out a string of words hoping all of it was coherent.

"Thank you, Susan. Have you made plans for New Year's Eve? I hope you will be able to attend the wedding," asked Fitz in a sincere voice.

"Thank you for the invitation, sir. I don't have any plans for New Year's Eve other than spending it with my Casey." Even though Susan thought she and David might have something going, especially now after he had given her the bracelet she was wearing as a Christmas gift, they hadn't made any plans to celebrate over the holidays.

"Of course, Casey. Why don't you bring Casey to the wedding so you won't need to have a sitter?"

"Are you sure? I know people don't always want children attending weddings."

"It will be fine. As soon Olivia and I have the details as to place and time, I'll let you know."

"Great." Susan was curious as to who else was invited to the wedding. She was secretly hoping David would be on the guest list to the presidential wedding. "Sir, since the wedding is only nine days away, I'm presuming that it isn't going to be a big wedding."

"No, it isn't. Olivia and I decided to invite those closest to us. Olivia has her team. Since Abby was part Olivia's team and a good friend, she will be there. I'm hoping my children will be there, assuming Mellie will allow it. Cyrus will be my best man and his husband and his daughter, who is also my and Olivia's god daughter will be there. There's you plus your daughter. I'll extend an invitation to Liz North as a courtesy since she is your Chief of Staff. I'll also be asking David Rosen since he's been a good friend to the administration…"

As soon Fitz mentioned David's name, he noticed that Susan's cheeks flushed and she was toying with the new bracelet on her wrist. _Ah,_ went through Fitz's mind as he wondered if his Vice President had a crush on his Attorney General. While he personally didn't have a problem of Susan and David being interested in other and having a relationship should David reciprocate feelings for Susan, he needed to find out their relationship would pose a problem from a regulation standpoint, that is, did their respective positions prohibited fraternization. He would have to ask Cyrus to check on the matter. He hoped it didn't. Fitz hated the thought of another clandestine relationship occurring in his presidential administration.

"Olivia and I want to keep the wedding small and intimate," concluded Fitz.

"Small and intimate is nice," Susan concurred. "Sir, I'm presuming you and Olivia have a plan in place in announcing your marriage."

"We do. We'll be making an announcement on New Year's Day or the day after. If Olivia and I are lucky, perhaps something else is happening that day and we won't be part of the news cycle," Fitz joked.

"Oh, I sincerely doubt that, Mr. President. I think POTUS getting married in secret would be big news." Susan pondered for a moment before saying, "Well, unless you convinced Prince Harry to get engaged and to announce his engagement the same time you announce your marriage. I would think that would be only way for you and Olivia would get usurped on the news cycle."

Fitz laughed at Susan's comment. Fitz knew Susan was often under estimated because she wasn't polished but she had a sharp mind.

At that moment, Cyrus and key members of the White House legislative affairs team entered the Oval. The White House legislative affairs team was responsible for working with Congress to execute the President's legislative agenda and vision. The team would meet with Congressional leaders and members of Congress to work on developing legislation and getting legislation passed. In charge of the legislative affairs team were Adam Holland, the Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs; Raj Murkejee, Deputy Assistant and House Liaison, and Lisa Santiago, Deputy Assistant and Senate Liaison.

Cyrus was surprised to see Susan sitting in the Oval with Fitz and when he thought she would be leaving, Fitz said, "I've asked Susan to join us."

Cyrus nodded his head as he and the legislative affairs team members took a seat between the two sofas.

"All right, no sugar coating. We got our ass kicked yesterday with the filibuster," said Fitz without any pretense.

The question which Fitz knew Cyrus would ask got asked, "So, how in hell did Mellie get the idea to do a filibuster? No one was expecting it. What the hell happened?"

The three members of the legislative affairs looked at each other before Adam answered, "Gibson."

"Gibson told Mellie to filibuster?" Fitz asked incredulously.

"More like Gibson goaded Mellie to do the filibuster," responded Lisa.

Lisa continued on, "As we all know the changed in Planned Parenthood's spending categorization was part of the horse trading that goes on in Congress to get votes for the spending bill. If was up to the right, Planned Parenthood wouldn't get funded at all and the left would hold out votes if that were to happen. As conciliatory measure, Planned Parenthood got categorized as discretionary to appease the right but there was a tacit agreement with the left that Planned Parenthood would get funded despite the re-categorization. What we have been hearing through the back room chatter was Gibson did have the votes to get the spending bill passed but it wasn't like he had a supermajority. Despite the tacit agreement with the left about Planned Parenthood getting funded, enough of the left as well other Senators who were against the re-categorization and/or some of the other crazy provisions that were included at the last minute, they were going to vote "no" out of principle. At best Gibson would have passed the bill with 53 votes. With everyone wanting to end the Senate session to head home for the holidays, no one felt strongly enough about stopping the spending the bill from being passed."

"Except for Mellie," commented Fitz.

Adam chimed in, "Well, it seems before the vote took place, Mellie approached Gibson and asked about the Planned Parenthood's funding re-categorization. She told him that she couldn't in good conscience vote "yes" and Gibson told her that it didn't matter because he had enough votes for the bill to pass. Then Gibson made some insulting comments to Mellie which no doubt got her up in a tizzy. His goading may have been deliberate."

"Mr. President, from what I heard from my sources, Congress is out to get us because of the impeachment hearings," said Raj in a somber voice.

"What do you mean?" asked Fitz in an alarmed tone.

"They know the reason why the impeachment hearings were terminated was the skeletons of the Senate Judiciary Committee members were made known to them and someone knows about the skeletons. They also suspect whoever was involved in digging up the skeletons has to be someone connected to the White House. Who else would have a vested interest in protecting you and the White House," replied Raj.

Adam added, "The better way to think about the situation is that Congress is trying to "neutralize" us. They are trying to weaken us politically in response to us trying to weaken them. The thought is if someone connected to the White House can damage the Senate Judiciary Committee, then all of Congress is at risk. In their mind, a White House with that kind of power is a threat that they are not going to tolerate.

"If Gibson's motive was to get back at us, he was taking a big chance on the filibuster succeeding since Mellie never prepared for it," said Fitz.

"Whether Mellie could have pulled off the filibuster probably didn't matter to him. A filibuster is great political theater and in this case, the filibuster would be a source of embarrassment for the White House because we couldn't stop it. Since Mellie is your ex-wife, Mr. President, you needed to tread very carefully with the filibuster. You couldn't publicly denounce the filibuster or it would seem like you were making it into personal matter between you and Mellie. Even if the filibuster ended up failing, the fact it happened was already a source of embarrassment for the White House. However, with the filibuster being successful, it now makes the White House seem weak and ineffective on the part of the American public because we didn't taken any action to stop or turn the tide against the filibuster. The White House gets blame for the shutdown and government employees not getting paid," said Adam.

"The thing is Mellie didn't have to filibuster. Since the voting weren't along party lines so there weren't concerns about being punished if a "yes" vote became a "no" vote. So Mellie could have horse traded to get the yes votes down to a 49 to defeat the spending bill or the more likely scenario, gotten it to a 50 and the Vice President would have voted to break the tie. However, Gibson made it sound like he had this supermajority and Mellie's "no" vote wouldn't have made a difference. Granted she would have to work like a madwoman with the horse trading because of the timing of the vote," added Lisa.

"Had the Senate had defeated the spending bill with enough no votes or if the Vice President broke the tie with a no vote, we would still have same result of not having a spending bill but it would have been less politically damaging for the White House. The fault would have fallen on Congress for not having passed the bill and that would have been the story we would have told the American public. The fact the filibuster was ultimately successful worked to their advantage," said Adam.

Adam added, "It's possible the filibuster may just be the tip of the iceberg for us. Going forward, who knows what Congress might try to throw at us when we are pushing our legislative agenda ahead."

"May I say something, Mr. President?" asked Susan.

"Go ahead, Susan."

"I know Mellie is desperate for political credibility in the Senate, sir and it would have been very easy for Senator Gibson, for the lack of a better word, to manipulate Mellie because she is desperate. The filibuster would have been greatest way for her to achieve credibility."

"If Gibson did ridicule Mellie then she would have felt the need to show that she could play with the grown-ups," said Cyrus. "Horse trading for votes would have been the subtle political move that a more seasoned politician would have opted for. Mellie isn't experienced enough to do that. An experienced legislator uses a filibuster as a last ditch effort to block legislation after the horse trading and legislative negotiation have failed."

"All right. Now we know what happened, let's come up with a game plan to get a spending bill passed, ideally, one with Planned Parenthood not listed as a discretionary spending item," declared Fitz.

The rest of the meeting focused on the horse trading that the White House could offer various Congress members to get them to pass a revised spending bill with Planned Parenthood protected from spending cuts or nor to lose its funding entirely. They also thought it was possible that there would be public pressure for Congress to pass a revised spending bill when they resume session if there was enough negative press detailing the impact of the government shut down and government employees not getting paid. With Congress out of session until a week after the New Year, it gave the White House a week to gear up to work with Congress amicably which would be the ideal situation, or in the worst case scenario, to do battle with Congress to get a revised spending bill passed.

At the end of the meeting, Fitz wished his legislative affairs team Happy Holidays since he knew not all the members of the team celebrated Christmas and encouraged them to leave early so they could enjoy the next couple days off. After the legislative affairs team left the Oval, only Fitz, Cyrus, and Susan remained in the room.

Fitz said in a somber voice, "Well, Cyrus, Susan, it looks like Congress is looking to take us down and will use whatever tactic available to them, which includes using Mellie. We are going to be facing some treacherous waters ahead of us."


	7. The New Cy-Livia Alliance

As soon the meeting with the legislative affairs team ended in the Oval, Cyrus quickly made his way to Abby's office to tell her what was discovered during the meeting. When he didn't see Abby in her office, a staffer informed him Abby was upstairs in the Residence with Olivia.

 _Perfect, killing two birds with one stone,_ thought Cyrus as he hurried his way to the Residence so he could speak with both of them. When he arrived at the Residence, he quickly checked the living room to see if Olivia and Abby were there. An empty living room indicated to Cyrus that the two of them was probably in the master bedroom. When he stood in front of closed bedroom door, he could hear voices from the other side. He knocked on the door and when he heard the instruction to enter, he proceeded into the bedroom.

Inside the bedroom, he found Olivia and Abby sitting on the sofa in the sitting area. The two looked like they were planning something with the sheets of paper that were lying on top of the coffee table and Abby had a pen and a pad in her hands.

When Olivia and Abby saw Cyrus in the master bedroom, they both greeted him.

"Cyrus, what brings you up the Residence?" asked Olivia casually. She hoped Cyrus wasn't there to convince her not to marry Fitz and/or not to have the baby.

"I need to talk to both of you. Fitz, Susan, and I just had a meeting with the legislative affairs team to talk about the filibuster. We are under siege by Congress," said Cyrus is a panicked voice.

Olivia and Abby exchanged glanced before Olivia said, "What are you talking about?"

"Mellie's filibuster. Gibson used her to create one."

"How?" asked Abby with disbelief.

"When Mellie found out about the Planned Parenthood funding re-categorization and told Gibson she couldn't vote yes to the bill, he told her that he didn't need her vote to carry the bill. He then got Mellie in a tizzy with some insulting comments. He misled Mellie to think he had a supermajority so her "no" vote would be moot."

"There wasn't a supermajority for the bill?" Olivia asked with amazement.

"No. According to the legislative affairs team, the bill could have been defeated with horse trading for the votes. Gibson knew Mellie didn't have enough experience to horse trade and she is also desperate for political credibility, which left Mellie the option to filibuster. If Mellie did the filibuster, we would have been in a weak position to counter the filibuster. It would have come across as being a personal attack against Mellie."

"Why did Gibson even want Mellie to filibuster?" asked Abby.

"He's getting even with us for the squashing the impeachment hearings. He knows it has to be someone in the White House who dug up the Senate Judiciary Committee's members' skeletons and leaked it to them that someone had the dirt. Congress isn't putting up with a White House that is going knock them down with blackmail."

Olivia and Abby looked at each other and each had a look of panic and concern.

"Red, I need to talk with Olivia privately," said Cyrus in an urgent voice.

"Sure. Liv, I'll just be in the living room while you and Cyrus talk."

After Abby left the master bedroom, Cyrus sat down next to Olivia on the sofa.

Cyrus took a deep breath and calmed down before saying, "I suppose you had a role in stopping Mellie from taking a piss on the Senate floor."

"Cyrus…"

"I knew it. Have you told Fitz?"

"He knows."

"All right," said Cyrus in a resigned voice. "Our little war allowed Mellie to be the victor."

"Well, we have to let her win one sometime."

"Yeah, but did it have to be with a filibuster?" asked Cyrus as he shook his head. "If I hadn't been so caught up on standing my ground, I would have insisted to Fitz that you needed to step in."

"And I would have said the same thing," conceded Olivia.

"I think the only person who was operating with all cylinders yesterday was Red."

"You know, she does have a name."

"I know but I like calling her Red. She should recognize as a form of affection. She should be more worry if I start calling her Abby."

"I'll let Abby know."

"Please do." Cyrus knew there was no point to harp on the filibuster and wanted to change the conversation. He gave Olivia a concerned look and asked "How are you feeling, kid? I guess I'm going to become an Uncle Cyrus in a few months?"

"Yes, you are," said Olivia with a chuckle. This was the Cyrus she loved. Olivia knew Cyrus wasn't perfect and Cyrus did what was best for Cyrus, but Cyrus had moments when she knew Cyrus wasn't all bad, either. "I'm ok but the morning sickness has me ragged."

"Unfortunately, I can't provide any advice on it. Since James and I adopted Ella and didn't use a surrogate, I know nothing about it. When Mellie was pregnant with Teddy, I just avoided her like the plague. I figured dealing with a pregnant hormonal Mellie would be the death of me."

Olivia laughed before saying, "It's fine, Cyrus. Since Fitz has gone through this before, he knows what to do. Let's cut to the chase, Cyrus. What do you want or need?"

"Look, Liv, I know things have been pretty rough between us after the impeachment hearings but Fitz gave me a good kick in the pants this morning. Liv, the truth is I'm a scared old man who doesn't know what's going to happen to him next. Once Fitz leaves office, I don't have any place to go. After being here and in the Oval, I can't be a university president or provost. It wouldn't hold me. I need to be here. They are probably going to have to carry me out of here in a coffin."

"We almost did, Cyrus. Remember your heart attack which I admit frightened the bejesus of Fitz and me," recalled Olivia.

Olivia knew her recent relationship difficulty with Cyrus wasn't Cyrus being Cyrus and she contributed to it. "I also admit I had a role in what been happening between us. Cyrus, there is something you need to know. I have PTSD from the kidnapping."

"Oh, Liv. We need to get you help. Have you told Fitz?"

"I have. He says he'll work on getting someone for me. You know it needs to be done discreetly. Especially with me becoming First Lady."

"I know. The group Fitz is working with will make sure."

"Yeah." Olivia changed the subject by asking, "With your next act, I guess you've ruled out the option of being on Team Mellie to get her elected as President."

"Liv, don't even suggest the idea of a President Mellie Grant. The thought is way too frightening."

"As a suggestion coming from your protégé, you may need to go and scout out someone who you believe can do the job. You might even have to cross party lines to find someone. Find and groom the person for the role and the job, Cyrus."

"It was easy with Fitz. I know politician is such a dirty word but it was different with him. All that idealism. Even after all that has happened, he still believes in things. He wouldn't have gotten the Brandon bill or non-nuclear proliferation with Bandar if he didn't."

"I know."

"I also know the office has broken him. The biggest price was probably him losing Jerry."

"Yeah," responded Olivia with a heavy heart since she knew who was responsible for Fitz losing his first born.

"I know my support for the two of you has run hot and cold depending on how it affected me. But it's about time you two got married. Fitz should have the chance to finish out his term happy. While I would prefer the ideal optics of a splashy presidential wedding with public support, a grand affair, our version of a royal wedding but we can't because by the time we get the splashy wedding planned out, you'll be ready to give birth."

"Probably. We would need to have an OB sitting in just in case I go into labor during the service."

Both Cyrus and Olivia burst out laughing at the image of very pregnant Olivia walking down the aisle looking like she about to give birth at any minute.

After Cyrus finished laughing, he said, "Fitz reminded me about us when we used to work together to protect him and the Oval. We are going to need to that again once you become First Lady. Especially with Congress out to steam roll us at every possible turn."

"You're right."

"The only way we going to counter a hostile Congress is to have a popular President and First Lady. More blackmail isn't going to help us. It was blackmail that got us in the predicament in the first place."

Olivia knew she was responsible for the predicament and she needed to "fix it". "I was thinking that already. That's reason why I suggested to Fitz that we should get married before the end of the year. We start the new year off and running as America's First Couple and use it garner public support to sway Congress to get a revised spending bill passed," said Olivia. "I know the optics of us having a secret wedding will hurt us initially but I think we can recover. Once I get medical clearance with the baby, we'll announce the future arrival of another America's baby. That should help us as well."

Cyrus broke out with happy laugh and a big smile. "My prize student."

"Cyrus, you know I want my team here with me."

"I know. I think it would be good to have your team here. I'll get them set up and have Red and Ethan helping them as well. Have you told them that you are about to become America's First Lady?"

"Not yet. They will be here soon."

"Liv, there is going to be a huge learning curve for them with navigating the White House bureaucracy."

"I know but they're gladiators. My gladiators, and they will gladiate through the White House red tape."

"I'm sure of it and I have no doubt who will come out as the victor," said Cyrus with a chuckle.


	8. Gladiators in the White House

After Cyrus finished his private meeting with Olivia and left the Residence, Abby went back to the Residence master bedroom to finish helping Olivia to work out the preliminary details of the New Year's Eve wedding. While they were talking, Olivia received a text from Quinn letting her know the OPA team was downstairs at the East Wing entrance. Olivia directed the gladiators to go to the East Wing because access to the Residence was closer from the East Wing entrance. In order for the OPA team to have entry into the Residence, Olivia needed to meet them and bring them upstairs. Since Olivia wasn't feeling well from the morning sickness, Abby offered to go downstairs to meet the team and bring them up to the Residence.

Abby saw Quinn, Huck and Marcus standing by the security desk at the East Wing entrance and waved at them and the three acknowledged her wave. After getting the gladiators cleared through security, Abby escorted them through the maze of corridors of the East Wing to the elevator that went up to the Residence.

"Abby, where are you taking us?" asked Quinn curiously.

"To the Residence."

"The Residence?" Marcus asked with immediate interest. "Isn't that the residential part of the White House? Where the President actually lives?"

"It is. Liv is upstairs in the bedroom. She's not feeling well so I offered to bring you upstairs to her."

"What's wrong with Liv?" asked Huck filled with concern.

Abby felt Olivia should be one telling the gladiators the news she was pregnant. "It's nothing serious but Liv will tell you what's wrong."

After Abby and the current group of gladiators exited out of the elevator, Abby guided the team through a hallway where the gladiators could see a dining room and living room. Abby then opened the door to a room and they all entered the master bedroom.

It was Marcus who recognized with magnitude of the where they were. "Oh my God, we are in the President's bedroom. The place where he sleeps and…" At that point, Marcus knew he needed to stop talking especially since Olivia was in the room. "Sorry about that, Olivia. I got caught up with the moment."

"It's fine, Marcus. Most people get awestruck when they walk into the master bedroom. I'm glad that all of you are here."

Abby knew Olivia needed some privacy to talk with the gladiators about the big changes that were about to come their way so she excused herself and left the bedroom.

"No problem, Liv. What's going on? Is everything ok? You normally don't ask us to come to the White House to see you. The last time Huck and I were here was when we were dealing with the mess of getting Cyrus married to his prostitute lover."

"Everything is ok. The reason why I asked you guys to come to the White House is I have couple of big announcements." Olivia looked at each of her gladiators before saying "First, Fitz and I are getting married."

Since Marcus was the gladiator who didn't have the entire full history of Olivia's relationship with Fitz other than to what he had been learned in the media and the bits and pieces he got from his fellow gladiators when they working to save Olivia's reputation when the affair became public knowledge, he was the first to offer his congratulations. "Olivia, congratulations to you and the President. I know the two of you have waited a long time for this."

"Thank you, Marcus." Olivia was still waiting a response from Quinn and Huck, her long-time gladiators.

Huck understood the implications of Olivia marrying Fitz would be and asked, "Liv, does your…" Olivia knew what Huck was about to ask and said, "No, not yet. I will be telling him very soon." Olivia noticed Marcus had a quizzical look on his face and was wondering what Huck was about to ask. She didn't want Marcus to be kept completely in the dark about things and said, "Huck was about to ask if my father knows about me marrying the President."

"Unless your father has an issue with the President's politics, I think any typical father would be very proud and happy for his daughter," said Marcus with a reassuring smile.

"My father isn't typical and he and the President have history."

"Oh, I see. Well, I hope fences can be mended between them."

Quinn remained silent throughout the entire time and Olivia was getting concerned. She didn't know if Quinn was shocked or upset with the news. Quinn finally spoked by asking "Liv, are you happy? If you are happy, that's what matters to me."

"I am. I love Fitz and I want to marry him."

"Good. That is what I want for you. So, when are the two of you getting married? I'm presuming it going to be a splashy full media circus type of wedding. It's not every day a sitting President gets married."

"You are right that's it's not every day a sitting President gets married but we are planning a very small private wedding on New Year's Eve."

"New Year's Eve?!" exclaimed Quinn. "That's only nine days away. Is the President supposed to have a large splashy wedding? The kind that Will and Kate had?"

"It's expected out of protocol since the President is a head of state and head of government but…"

Before Olivia could finish her sentence, Huck interjected "Quinn, they are getting on New Year's Eve because they don't have time to plan a big wedding because Olivia is pregnant."

"Liv, are you pregnant?" Quinn asked for confirmation.

"I am."

The gladiators were stunned silent with the news of Olivia's pregnancy. Marcus was the first one to speak again and said "Wow, Olivia, talk about big announcements. You're getting married and having a baby. I think it's great for you and the President."

"Thank you, Marcus.

While Marcus was speaking, Quinn and Huck were processing the news about Olivia having a baby. They knew with Olivia getting married and having a baby everything was going to change for them. Both of them were feeling scared and abandoned. They knew realistically that Olivia couldn't run OPA and be First Lady at the same time. Not that she wasn't capable of doing so but rather it was because of who OPA had for clients. Politicians and government leaders, not just in the US but also around the world and some of those relationships would be potentially embarrassing for the White House. Also, they had clients where it had been their job to go after the White House. For both Quinn and Huck, if there was no OPA, they weren't sure what they were going to do.

"Olivia, I'm presuming you will be shutting down OPA with you becoming First Lady," said Marcus.

"Yes, I will be but the shutdown will be temporary. That is, OPA will be hiatus until Fitz's term is over. Once he is finished his term, OPA will open up for the business again. During the time while I'm First Lady, I'm going to need a bunch of gladiators to help me take on big problems that our country is facing or things we need to address to make the world a better place."

"Olivia, are you asking us to become your staff? The First Lady's staff?" asked Marcus in a state of disbelief.

"I am. I know this will be a big change for us. OPA isn't exactly known for working within the establishment and us being here means we will be part of the establishment."

"This isn't establishment as in the little "e", Liv. This is a big "e", like Mount Rushmore size. Is the White House going to accept us?" asked Quinn

"Both Fitz and Cyrus know I want all of you here and they are supporting it."

"Cyrus is actually ok with the idea of us being here?" answered Quinn. She couldn't believe the President's Chief of Staff, one of the most obnoxious people she ever had to deal with was welcoming OPA gladiators with open arms to the White House. "I don't believe it. He's going try to screw with us when we are here."

"He's not. He has already given Fitz and me assurances that he will do everything to ease you into the White House system of doing things."

"Oh, God! There's a system of doing things here?" exclaimed Quinn. OPA gladiators just got things done. They didn't go through levels of bureaucratic crap to make things happen.

"Quinn, the White House is just like any bureaucracy. You have to know who to be friends with to get stuff done. Because it is the White House, we can't intimidate people but there are other means we can use to help people see our way."

Olivia already sensed she had Marcus on board. She had the feeling Marcus was welcoming the challenge of doing battle with the White House bureaucracy. No doubt Marcus's gladiating spirit came from his experience as a community organizer/activist. He was used to challenging bureaucracy to make things right. Olivia needed to figure out a way to convince Quinn and Huck to join Marcus.

"I'll come to work for you here at the White House," said Huck succinctly. "I'll do anything you need to me do to help you, Liv."

"Thank you, Huck." Olivia had two of her gladiators. She needed her third one to say yes.

"Liv, we're not going to be spending our time scheduling tea parties and things like that, are we?" asked Quinn. When Olivia heard the question, she knew Quinn was starting to warm up to the idea of working at the White House. She also knew Huck jumping aboard also helped.

"No. There is a social secretary who handles stuff like that. You guys will be focused on working with me to identify policy issues or concerns I can tackle on as First Lady. We can decide on titles later but we will also have staffers and interns working with us on the policy initiative work."

"Titles? What kind of titles?" asked Quinn. With OPA, there was Olivia Pope and everyone else was an associate.

"The First Lady's office had a similar structure to the President's office. There is a Chief of Staff, special Assistants which are people who advise the President, directors who are in charge of a unit or program. There are other titles but since the First Lady's office is much smaller, it not layer and layer of titles."

"Ok, that makes sense," responded Quinn. Quinn paused for moment before asking, "When do we need to start working as your staff? We are going to need some time to close out the office…"

"I officially become First Lady on New Year's Eve when Fitz and I get married. The sooner we close out OPA, the better. I know we are hampered because of the holidays but we can get the balling rolling after the New Year. Since there hasn't been an official First Lady since Mellie left, we are going to need some time to get the Office of the First Lady up and running," replied Olivia. "So, all of you are in?"

"I'm in," answered Marcus excitedly.

"I'm in," replied Huck with a solemn voice.

"I'm in," said Quinn while trying to hide her concern. The last time Quinn worked as part of the establishment was when she was a lawyer until Harrison recruited her to join OPA. She wondered if she could hack working as part of the granddaddy of all establishments. She could try it for a while and if it wasn't working out for her, she would tell Olivia.

"Great. I'm happy that my gladiators will be with me."

"Olivia, your New Year's Eve wedding with the President, I'm presuming we need to keep it under wraps," said Marcus.

"Yes. We are going to make an announcement on New Year's Day or the day after," responded Olivia. Olivia then realized she didn't tell the gladiators they were invited to the wedding. "I'm sorry if I forgot to mention earlier but all of you are invited to the wedding. Quinn, if Charlie is around, he's invited. I told Fitz pregnancy is making me forget things."

"Charlie is around. He is got back in town yesterday. I'll ask him. Is the wedding black tie?" Quinn asked with a slight concern. If the wedding was black tie, she knew Charlie probably wouldn't come. He didn't do black tie.

"No. Abby and I still are working the details. Speaking of which, I'm going to need all of your help to pull this wedding off. Are you guys up to some gladiating wedding planning?"

The gladiators laughed at Olivia's question and responded they were up to the job. When Abby returned to the bedroom, she saw Olivia and gladiators having a good laugh. She guessed the meeting went well and there will be more gladiators in the White House.

"Hey, Abs, the gladiators will be helping us put together a presidential wedding," said Olivia with a big smile.

"Great. We'll all meet the day after the Christmas at Blair House to launch Operation Wedding Bells."

"Why are we meeting in Blair House?" asked Huck.

"We've decided to have the wedding in Blair House. We can have it there in secret and we can also plan the wedding in secret there. If we were to plan it here, it's bound to get leaked out with all the people traffic," said Abby. She knew this from first-hand experience when they were dealing with Cyrus's wedding to Michael and she inadvertently mentioned to Leo that they had set up a war room to deal with the wedding planning and Leo passed the information onto Sally Langston.

"Since tomorrow is Christmas Eve, do you guys have plans?" asked Olivia with slight concern. The longstanding OPA Christmas tradition was for them to sit at the steps at the Lincoln Memorial and share a bottle of vodka, then afterwards, they would go back to work.

"Charlie is around so I'm spending Christmas with him," answered Quinn with a quiet happiness. She wasn't spending Christmas alone.

"My aunt has a big family gathering planned out," replied Marcus.

The person who Olivia worried the most was Huck. With her spending Christmas with Fitz at the White House, Huck would truly be alone. "I'm ok, Liv," said Huck to reassure Olivia that he was going to be fine. Huck felt some peace after he had his "special meeting" with Command. With Olivia planning to marry Fitz, Huck needed to talk with Olivia about his meeting with Command and what he learned about Command's motives.

"Good," said Olivia with relief. Olivia then realized that she had presents for Fitz and she kept them in her office in a secret drawer. She needed the gladiators to get the presents for her and bring them back to the White House.

"Guys, can you do me a big favor?"

* * *

After their meeting with Olivia in the bedroom, Abby escorted them out of the Residence but rather taking them out to the East Wing, she directed them to the West Wing of the White House. The gladiators noticed they were being lead in a different direction from the way they entered.

"Abby, where are we going? asked Huck.

"I'm taking you guys to the Oval. President's orders." When the gladiators were meeting with Olivia, Abby got a call on her cell phone from Fitz asking her to bring the gladiators to the Oval after their meeting with Olivia.

"Why are we going to the Oval?" Quinn asked anxiously.

"Yeah, Abby, why are we going to the Oval?" asked Marcus. "The only person who is in the Oval is the President."

"The President wants to meet with you guys."

When the gladiators stopped in their tracks, Abby asked "What's wrong?"

"I'm not dressed to meet the President. I'm only wearing a pair of pants and a pullover sweater. Not all of us are wearing suits," said Quinn as she gestured to Marcus who was wearing a suit with a dress shirt and tie.

"It's fine, Quinn," said Abby reassuringly. "The President knows this is an impromptu meeting. Anyway, once you start working here, you will need to get used to having impromptu meetings with the President."

Abby lead the gladiators pass Charlotte's desk and the Secret Service agent who stood in front of the Oval opened the door to let Abby and the gladiators through. As soon the four of the walked into the Oval, Fitz got up from his chair behind the Resolute Desk and walked around it to greet the gladiators.

Since it was the first time Fitz was meeting Marcus, he extended a hand to him for handshake and said "Welcome, Marcus. It's pleasure to meet you."

"It's an honor, Mr. President," Marcus responded back as he shook Fitz's hand. Marcus was holding off the temptation to say that he voted for Fitz both times.

Just as Abby was about to leave, Fitz instructed her to stay. Fitz then directed his attention to the gladiators and said "I want to say thank you so much for agreeing to come to work with Olivia here at the White House. It means a lot to the both of us. I want her to be happy and to be fulfilled in her role as First Lady. Having all of you here will play a big part of it. I know for each of you, working here will be a huge transition from working at OPA. But I want to let you know that you will have support from Cyrus, Abby, and Ethan to help you with the transition. Should any of you encounter obstacles, please let us know. When I mean us, it also includes me. It seems around here, a phone call from a guy who has an egg-shaped office is more effective than one with a corner office."

With the exception of Huck, Quinn and Marcus chuckled at Fitz's statement. While Quinn had interactions with Fitz through OPA work but since the interactions involved serious matters, she never knew if Fitz had a sense of humor. For Marcus, he had seen Fitz on TV and had a feeling the man had a sense of humor. The fact Fitz had a sense of humor would make the experience of working at the White House more pleasant.

Fitz then continued on, "Protocol dictates that you call me Mr. President or Sir, and we will maintain protocol during official meetings and work-related activities. However, during private moments, you can call me Fitz. This also includes you, Abby. We've worked together long enough that it's about time you start calling me by my first name."

The gladiators were stunned at the idea that they were going to be on first-name basis with POTUS. Abby was also surprised with the Fitz's request given the rocky start she had when she first started working at the White House and he called her Gabby. Her working relationship with Fitz had come a long way.

"Any questions?" asked Fitz.

The gladiators looked at the each other and Marcus said "None, sir. Or is it Fitz?"

Fitz laughed and responded "Either one." After he stopped laughing, Fitz wished the gladiators a Merry Christmas before saying good bye. Just as the Abby and the gladiators were about to leave, Fitz asked Huck to stay behind.

Abby, Quinn, and Marcus waited for Huck outside the corridor of Charlotte's office. When Huck came out to join them, he had a more serious expression than usual.

"Huck, what did the President…or Fitz wanted to see you about?" asked Quinn in a low voice filled with curiosity.

"I can't answer out here in the hallway," said Huck. "Abby, can we go to your office?"

"Sure." Abby then lead the gladiators to her office. Once everyone was inside, Abby closed the door shut so they could have privacy.

"I didn't want to say anything in the hallway because Liv and Fitz getting married is a secret and the announcement of Liv being America's First Lady doesn't happen until New Year's Day or the day after, we have to be careful where we talk," said Huck. "Fitz told me I was going to have a special role as part of Liv's staff."

"Which is?" asked Marcus.

"My job will be to make sure the Office of the First Lady is hacker-proof and as well as to keep an eye on things. He wants to make sure Olivia will be safe."

"Is there any reason why her safety would be in jeopardy? Isn't Liv going to be surrounded by Secret Service when she becomes First Lady?" asked Quinn now filled with concern.

"The Secret Service won't be able to protect Liv with the kind of danger Huck is talking about. I'll fill you in on the details," replied Abby in a serious tone that had the gladiators on high alert.


	9. Christmas in Scandalland

**Author's Note:**

 **Alternate telling of 5x09 on how Christmas was spent in the world of _Scandal_.**

 **I took classes in cake decorating and wedding cake design a long time ago so I channeled some my past knowledge into Abby.**

 **The Olitz segment is an re-examination of the 5x09 epic breakup fight, as well as based on Fitz's comments on the Season 5 finale.**

* * *

Each of the OPA gladiators was having a happy Christmas.

Quinn and Charlie were enjoying their Chinese takeaway in her apartment which was decorated with the Christmas tree and decorations that Charlie obtained through illicit means. Quinn was willing to overlook what Charlie did this time but going forward Charlie would need to be on the straight and narrow if she was going to be working in the White House. Not that Quinn wanted Charlie to change who he was but rather she couldn't have Charlie get arrested for larceny and have it come out in the media the two of them had a "special friendship." With her working in the White House, Quinn knew she was going to have to mind her Ps and Qs so not to embarrass Olivia and cause her trouble.

From what Abby to her, Huck, and Marcus, the White House was dealing with an angry Congress and which is why Mellie's filibuster took place. The White House didn't need to provide more ammunition for Congress to have and no doubt once Congress found out the OPA gladiators were going to be part of the new First Lady's staff, they would probably look to use it to take down the White House. The gladiators made the pledge that a better defense is a good offense, that is, they wouldn't do anything to give Congress to use against them and Olivia.

Since she and her fellow gladiators were under secrecy about Olivia marrying Fitz, Quinn couldn't tell Charlie about her new job situation until after Olivia and Fitz were married. However, Quinn did want Charlie to be her "plus one" for the wedding, she asked Charlie if he was interested in attending a New Year's Eve social Olivia planned to have at the White House. Quinn knew even a suit and tie would be a stretch for Charlie but after assuring him it would only be a few hours, Charlie agreed. She only hoped Charlie wouldn't be too upset when he found out the "social" was actually an extremely low-key presidential wedding…

While Quinn was having Chinese food with Charlie in her apartment, Marcus was surrounded with family love and warmth at his aunt's home. He was in the kitchen along with other family members helping to prepare the large traditional family Christmas dinner. He was working with his cousin Janel preparing the sweet potatoes. Marcus had a close relationship with Janel. Janel provided him work during the time he hadn't been able find steady employment after the Mayor Verrano scandal. Janel had him work in the back office of her catering business which involved dealing with party rentals and organizing serving staff for on-site jobs. Marcus was grateful for his cousin's support during his low period.

Even though Christmas would be a big business day for Janel, she made it a point not to work on Christmas and to spend it with family. Even though she was cooking, cooking with family for family for Christmas was different than cooking for strangers. As she and Marcus were working together, she noticed that Marcus seemed really happy. She wondered if Marcus was seeing someone special.

"Hey, cuz, you seem all happy and smiley," said Janel. "Are you seeing someone special?"

"No. No time," replied Marcus. Since the presidential wedding was a big secret, Marcus couldn't tell his favorite cousin that his professional life was about to go through the roof with him working at the White House. "Just happy that it's Christmas and I get to spend it with family. Also, I'm feeling pretty bless right now."

Janel suspected it had something to do with Marcus finally finding a steady job. The family had been surprised to find out he had become a part of the world famous Olivia Pope's team. They thought Marcus would try to get back on his feet as a community organizer/activist and it was just a matter of him finding a platform to take on and finding people who would support him. They figured time needed to pass after the Verrano scandal in order for it to happen. However, Janel knew Marcus had been getting impatient and really needed a steady job for financial reasons when he got offered the job with Olivia Pope's team. Marcus only worked only part-time for the catering business and what he did for didn't sustain him.

"So everything is going ok working with Olivia Pope?"

"It's great," said Marcus with a big smile. He remembered how proud the family was when they saw him on TV defending Olivia. He can only imagine what their response is going to be when they find out he will be a member of America's new First Lady's staff at the White House…

The only gladiator who was spending Christmas alone was Huck but he wanted it to be that way. After his highly emotional "meeting" with Rowan, Huck just wanted quiet. However, instead of spending Christmas at his apartment, he was at OPA starting the process of closing down the office. He was spending his time securing OPA's computer's system and its files. His meeting with Fitz and Abby's disclosure about Congress wanting to come after the White House put Huck on heighten alert on protecting Olivia and OPA.

When the OPA gladiators made the pledge of creating a good offense, he offered to go into the office to start the process of protecting the computer system and files on Christmas Day since the whole process of protecting the system and files would take a lot of time. He knew once the announcement was made about Olivia and Fitz being married, people would start digging into OPA to bring Olivia and her gladiators down. He wasn't going to let that happen.

Even though he was working, Huck also wanted to celebrate Christmas his own way. He was enjoying a takeout Christmas dinner from a diner – he chose to have roast beef with potatoes and vegetables. Huck was a man of simple taste and there was nothing better than rare roast beef with sides. As he was working on the computer system and files, he got an online message from his son Javi asking him if he was around and wanted to play a computer game online. Huck readily said yes to Javi's invitation. For Huck, being alone at OPA with its computer system, having a nice roast beef dinner, and getting to play an online computer game with his son, this was nirvana Christmas.

* * *

Cyrus was watching Ella play with the doll her "Uncle" Fitz gave her for Christmas as he was enjoying some cheese and crackers in his living room. Michael was busy in the kitchen preparing their Christmas meal and he didn't want Cyrus to be underfoot. Even though Cyrus offered to help, especially since he invited Abby and Leo to join them, Michael said he was the kind of cook who worked better alone in the kitchen.

Cyrus didn't want to argue with Michael since he knew it was a special Christmas for Michael. It was the first proper Christmas Michael had in a long time after leaving home. It wasn't just about having a tree and decorations, but it was also about not spending it alone. Cyrus understood Michael's perspective since he hadn't celebrated Christmas in a real way after James died. James had been the one to fuss over Christmas and when he died, Cyrus felt whatever Christmas he had in him died too. After James and before Michael, Cyrus went through the motions of having a tree and presents for Ella's sake but all of it felt empty inside. However, for this Christmas, Cyrus didn't feel empty. Not that he was experiencing the warm fuzzies – Cyrus didn't get the warm fuzzies but it was state of contentment that he hadn't felt for a long time.

As part of that contentment was that he had Michael and Ella in his life just as Michael had him and Ella in his life. Although neither one claimed any pretense of being in love with each other, they had an understanding and they were making their situation work. Michael had taken on the role of Ella's caretaker and they only used a babysitter when Michael had to be at school or needed some time private quiet time to work on a school assignment or to prepare for exams. Cyrus was doing what he could to support Michael as he was finishing up his MBA by watching Ella when he was able to. Although he paying for Michael's studies as part of the arrangement Olivia had set up, he didn't mind and considered it as part of making their situation work.

Also as part of them making their situation work was Cyrus publicly acknowledging Michael as his husband at social events. When he arrived home from work couple days ago, Cyrus told Michael the three of them would be attending a party Fitz and Olivia were hosting on New Year's Eve. While Cyrus knew Michael was happy to be extended an invitation, he had no doubt Michael would be stunned to find out he was really attending a secret presidential wedding…

* * *

As Michael was preparing a lovely Christmas meal at the Beene-Ambruso household, Abby was busy in her kitchen. When Cyrus invited her and Leo to have Christmas dinner with him, Michael, and Ella, she said yes immediately and offered to bring dessert. Since it was just her and Leo, preparing an elaborate Christmas meal was a lot of work and she didn't really want to eat out on Christmas Day. The offer to have a nice Christmas dinner with someone else doing the work was a prayer answered.

Although Abby finished preparing the apple and pumpkin pies for tonight's dinner, she was using her dessert baking as a guise for her cake baking. She was baking Olivia and Fitz's wedding cakes and was going to surprise them. Abby simply told Olivia that she would handle the cakes for their wedding without going any specifics as to what that meant. Since Leo just gotten back from an out-of-town campaign consultant job, he was exhausted and was spending most of his time sleeping so Abby was able to work in the kitchen without Leo coming in and out the kitchen.

Abby decided for the wedding cake, it would be a two-tiered vanilla chiffon with each tier split into three layers filled with a combination of lemon curd and gourmet raspberry jam. The cake would be covered with vanilla buttercream which would hold since it was winter. Each tier would have piped rosettes and C-motion borders. Instead of having of bride and groom cake toppers, she would use edible flowers. For the groom's cake, it would be a chocoaholic's dream - a single tier rich chocolate cake that would also be split into three layers filled with chocolate ganache and covered chocolate buttercream and decorated with candied violets. She would make the cake layers now and would start assembling the cakes at Blair House couple of days before the wedding. Since Blair House was regarded as the world's most private hotel, the kitchen had commercial size refrigerators which would be big enough to store the cakes.

She already told Leo that they were invited to a New Year's Eve party hosted by Olivia and Fitz to which Leo was thrilled. For Leo, any chance to hobnob with the President was not to be missed. From her past experience with Leo who was not known for his discretion, Abby would hold off telling Leo the party Olivia and Fitz was hosting on New Year's Eve wasn't just any party…

* * *

At Number One Observatory Circle where Vice President Susan Ross lived with her young daughter Casey, they were hosting US Attorney General David Rosen as their Christmas dinner guest. Susan had the chance to see David at the White House the day before Christmas Eve when he came to meet with Fitz about the filibuster. From what she understood, although the filibuster was a black eye for the White House, but when Mellie mentioned the various appropriation items in the spending bill, it became of big tip-off to David and the Justice Department that some of the items might have been the result of kickbacks members of Congress were getting from their special interest constituencies.

After David had his meeting with Fitz, he stopped by her office to say hello and during his impromptu visit, Susan extended an invitation to him to come to her home to have Christmas dinner with her and Casey. Since David didn't want to come empty handed, he offered to bring wine for the dinner and wanted to bring a small gift for Casey. He asked her what would Casey would like and she suggested a gift card from a local bookstore would be sufficient since Casey was an avid reader.

Susan hadn't been worried about Casey being shy around David since Casey was both out-going and comfortable around adults. Casey having these traits made Casey an asset during her campaign for the Senate and which Olivia capitalized on. Throughout dinner, the three of them were engaged in lively conversation which David seemed to enjoy.

As they were finishing up dessert, Casey asked Susan "Hey, Mom, could you ask the President if we could bring David to the New Year's Eve party he is having?"

David quickly responded "Your mom doesn't have to ask. I've already been invited to the party."

"Really?"

"David is regarded as a good friend to the president's administration. Which means he does things to help the President," commented Susan.

"That's cool," responded Casey with a broad smile

"If the of two of you want, I would be honored to be your escort for the party," said David with a wink to Casey. Casey responded with a giggle while Susan felt her cheeks flushed.

Then Susan and David exchange a secret glance with the full knowledge that the presidential New Year's Eve party was something more and Casey was to be part of an exclusive group of guests and it would be a story she could tell her children and grandchildren…

* * *

Over in a Washington DC brownstone, Karen and Teddy Grant were spending Christmas with their mother, Senator Mellie Grant from Virginia. Rather than a quiet threesome dinner, their mother was hosting a "smallish" dinner party of 15, three of them plus a dozen guests. The dinner guests included VIP members of the Virginia Republican Party and DC politicos.

Teddy got cranky with the influx of strangers in the house and was taken upstairs to his room by his nanny while Karen was sitting down at the large dinner table surrounded by strangers and hearing her mother regale the dinner guests with the story of her successful filibuster. While Karen was proud of her mother in achieving a great political moment but her mother sounded like as if she founded world peace with her filibuster. Karen, being a Grant with political DNA, knew it was a crowning moment for her mother as the US Senator but was a black eye for her father as POTUS. Whether or not her mother did it as a jab to her father, she wasn't' sure but Karen would prefer her mother not to be gloating so much about it.

Karen was glad her father was spending Christmas Day with Olivia. She knew as part of her parents' divorce settlement, her mother had full custody of Teddy and their holidays would be spent with her. At least, her visitation arrangement was more flexible since she was away at school. Karen had a suspicion the arrangement was her mother taking another jab at her father for falling in love with another woman and making the conscious decision to be with the other woman, instead of remaining married to her mother and agreeing to a "political partnership" that would help to launch her political career.

Karen was happy she had a baby brother to celebrate with Christmas with. After her older brother Jerry died, Karen didn't think she could ever celebrate Christmas without him around. Having a baby brother who too little to fully understand the loss of their older brother made it easier to celebrate. Teddy was happy and joyful and his happiness and joy somehow spread to her around this time of the year. As soon she walked in the door of their mother's DC home, Teddy immediately ran up to hug her and said "Merry Christmus, Kare-Kare. I'm happy to see you." Afterwards, Teddy pulled her into the living room to show her the decorated Christmas tree and just chatted how he helped to decorate the tree.

With her Grant political DNA in full action, Karen was politely smiling throughout the dinner while secretly hoping the dinner would end soon enough. She focused enough of her attention to give the impression that she actually care while she thought about her visit with her father. She was looking forward to seeing her father tomorrow at the White House and spending the rest of her holiday vacation with her father before going back to school. Teddy would be coming too but then would be returning to their mother's DC home in a couple days. Karen knew Teddy was happy and excited to see their father when he asked "Kare-Kare, we are seeing Daddy tomorrow?" earlier in the day.

"We are, TB," she replied. TB meant teddy bear and it was her nickname for her baby brother.

"Good. I made a special Christmus card for Daddy and I want to give it to him."

"I'm sure he'll love it."

"I also made a special card for Libby, too." said Teddy proudly. Since Teddy couldn't say Olivia as of yet, he called her Libby instead, even though he was trying to say Livie, like his father. "But I'm hiding the card so Mommy doesn't see it, Kare-Kare. I don't want Mommy to get mad," he said in a whisper to his older sister.

"That's ok, TB."

"Kare-Kare, do you think Daddy might marry Libby? I want him to."

"I think so. I hope so. But we can't say anything to Mommy about it, ok. Or she is going to get really mad."

"Ok, Kare-Kare. Pinky promise," said Teddy as he held up his hand and extended out his pinky finger to his sister. Karen then linked her pinky finger with Teddy's and said, "Pinky promise." After they unlinked their pinky fingers, she gave her baby brother a big hug and a kiss.

* * *

At the White House, Olivia and Fitz were in the Residence master bedroom sitting area unwrapping Christmas presents, or rather Fitz was unwrapping an assortment of presents that Olivia had purchased over the years for his birthday and Christmas and was now able to give them to him. As the "other woman", giving gifts to the man was a tricky business since the gifts couldn't draw attention to the wife, as Olivia discovered when she gave Fitz his Eisenhower flag pin.

After Olivia asked her gladiators to get the presents out of her office and bring them back to the White House, Huck agreed to do it since he also wanted to have some alone time to talk with Olivia about his special "meeting" with Rowan. Huck wanted to prepare Olivia for her meeting with her father when she would tell him she was marrying Fitz. Since there were so many presents, Huck had to pack them in a box so to transport them over the White House and he helped Olivia find a hiding a place for the box.

Since Fitz was a wealthy man and could afford to buy things for himself, Olivia's gifts were more personal, such as first edition of a book by his favorite author, or funny things that would make him laugh, such as a left-handed coffee mug that had "Don't Ask Me I'm Not in Charge" written on it. When he saw the mug, he said "I'm going to bring it with me to my next meeting with the National Security Council," he said with a hearty laugh.

After Fitz unwrapped all of his presents, he gave Olivia a passionate kiss. As much he wanted to make love to Olivia, he knew Olivia was dealing with the discomfort of morning sickness and didn't want to make the problem worse. His plans for their romantic Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners were on hold because of the pregnancy and morning sickness. He originally planned with the White House chef to have a 5-course French testing menu with a paired red wine prepared for Christmas Eve and a roast duck dinner on Christmas Day. Instead, he told the chef Olivia was sick with a "stomach bug" and all they needed was a large pot of chicken soup for Christmas Eve and Day with plenty saltine crackers on hand, as well as a supply of ginger tea. The five-course tasting menu with wine would have to wait until the baby was born and Fitz was already planning it to be their "first" date night after Olivia had the baby. They could have a roast duck dinner without wine once Olivia's morning sickness ended.

After their kiss ended, Fitz got up from the sofa and went into the walk-in closet. When he returned, Fitz was holding a medium size gift bag that looked heavy. He sat down next to Olivia on the sofa and instead of handing the bag to Olivia, he pulled out a large black velvet necklace box out of the shopping bag and handed the box to Olivia to open. When Olivia opened the box, what she saw took her breath away. It was a triple strand pearl necklace with an ornate diamond pendant in the middle.

Fitz said "The necklace belonged to my great-grandmother. The same one who owned the Doux Bebe ring. There is also a matching bracelet and earrings to go with the necklace. This was part of her wedding jewelry trousseau when she got married. I would like to say it is one of a kind but it's not according to an appraiser who looked at it. But it is old and a Grant family heirloom. Mellie doesn't know about this jewelry set and my father probably forgot it was part of the Grant family collection. The set was sitting in a bank vault in California but I asked the bank to send it to me when we officially became a couple. Now they are yours, Livie. Jewels to be passed on to a Mrs. Grant and fitting for America's First Lady to have. They might be too much for our small private wedding on New Year's Eve but you will have a chance to wear them when we host the few state dinners that are scheduled in the remaining time of my term."

"Oh, Fitz," cried Olivia as she hugged him. Olivia was so moved with the gift she was speechless.

After their hug, Fitz said, "Let see how it looks on you," as he removed the necklace from the case so he could put it around Olivia's neck. After clasping the necklace, the two of them walked over the full length mirror so Olivia could see herself with the necklace. Standing in front of the mirror, Olivia pulled up her hair so she could see the necklace fully. Olivia would have a wear an updo in order to do the necklace full justice and the necklace would be ideal for a state dinner.

Fitz then asked "Do you want to try on the earrings?"

"Yeah."

Fitz went back to the sofa to retrieve the earring box out of the gift bag. After getting the earring box, he handed the earring box to Olivia when he standing next to Olivia in front of the full length mirror. When Olivia opened the earring box, she saw a pair of diamond earrings in same design as the pendant with a pearl center. As Fitz held the box for her, Olivia carefully removed each earring from the box before putting them on. Olivia then turned to look at herself at the mirror again with Fitz standing behind her.

"Absolutely perfect, Madam First Lady," said Fitz with a big smile before kissing Olivia's hair. Olivia then turned to give Fitz a hug and a kiss.

After their kiss and hug, Olivia said "They're beautiful, Fitz. Thank you so much. I'll wear them proudly. I love you, Fitz."

"And I love you, Livie."

Later on in the evening, after Olivia and Fitz had settled into bed, Olivia slipped out of the bed and walked over to her vanity table. She left the necklace, bracelet, and earring boxes on the vanity table before they went to bed. She opened the necklace box and let her fingers run over the pearl strands and the ornate diamond pendant. _A Grant family heirloom…Jewels to be passed onto a Mrs. Grant,_ Fitz's words echoed in Olivia's head. As she was touching the necklace, Olivia started to cry and turned to look at Fitz who was sleeping soundly in bed before turning her attention back to the necklace.

While Olivia was sitting at the vanity table and had her attention focused on the necklace, she didn't realize Fitz had shifted in bed and was instinctively reaching for her. When he didn't feel her next to him, Fitz woke up and raised himself slightly up from bed. He was listening for any sounds coming from the bathroom thinking Olivia was throwing up from morning sickness. Instead, Fitz heard soft crying coming from the vanity table and when he turned his head, he saw Olivia sitting there with the open necklace box.

Fitz got out of bed and walked over the vanity table before saying "Livie, what's wrong? Why are you crying? If you don't like the jewel set, that's ok. I'll get you something else." He then knelt down next to Olivia at the table.

"No, it's not that," said Olivia as she was wiping away her tears with her hands. "They're beautiful. I love them. I feel I don't deserve them considering what I was about to do us."

Fitz was thinking Olivia was talking about her plan to have an abortion and said "Livie, it's ok. You went through a moment of doubt about having the baby and it's normal considering your circumstances…"

"It's not just about the abortion. That night when I was going to have the abortion…had I gone through with the abortion, I was going to break up with you when I got back from the clinic. I knew I couldn't face you knowing what I did. I figured you would be angry with me for missing the holiday dinner party with the Cabinet and would have used it to start a fight."

Fitz was shocked and stunned with Olivia's admission. He eventually managed to say "Livie, I know this may be hard to believe but I would have figured out some way to cope with your decision not to have the baby but I wouldn't survive losing you."

Fitz then held Olivia's face with his hands before saying "Thank you for choosing to have our baby and more importantly, thank you for choosing us."

"I'm glad I chose us and the baby."

Fitz then took Olivia in his arms and held her for the longest time. After Fitz let go of Olivia and got up, Olivia shut the necklace case and she got up from her vanity table chair to walk around the chair. Fitz then carried Olivia back to the bed and after they settled in, the two held each other closely and were counting the blessing Olivia made the choices she did and they were probably the best Christmas present she gave to Fitz and to herself.


	10. Wedding Planning Gladiator Style

**Author's Note:**

 **Many thanks to fellow fanfic readers and writers for following and/or favoriting my story.**

 **Sorry for the hiatus in posting the latest installment. My writing muses have directed my attention to my other fanfic story,** **Finding a Way to Vermont** **, as well as working on work-related project.**

 **I'm taking artistic license with Blair House in terms of access, use and staffing. In real life, Blair House is overseen by the Department of State's Office of the Chief of Protocol. It is fully staffed (which includes a doorman) and the staff becomes live-in where there is a dignitary staying at Blair House. In other words, planning a secret presidential wedding in Blair House would be just be challenging.**

* * *

After Abby gave her press briefing to the White House press corps, she went back to her office to wait for the OPA gladiators so all of them could head over to Blair House to set up the war room for Operation Wedding Bells. Since Cyrus knew she was helping to plan the wedding, he offered to take care of press and media concerns or issues that came up unless involved a press briefing, in that case, she would need to go back to work.

Since the gladiators would be spending a fair amount of time at the White House to plan the wedding, she arranged with Cyrus for the gladiators to a have standing visitor pass so they wouldn't need to clear through security each time they came to the White House. Once they officially started working at the White House, the gladiators would officially have staff IDs.

There was knock on Abby's door and when she told the person to come in, it was the gladiators.

"Hey, guys," she greeted them warmly. "We are going to head over to Blair House now," she said as she got up from her desk chair. She put her coat and grabbed her handbag. The four of them exited the White House and headed across the street where Blair House was. Since the wedding was top secret, the four of them just made small talk how they celebrated Christmas as they made their trip to Blair House so their conversation didn't draw any attention.

When they arrived at the front door entrance of Blair House, Abby pulled out an electronic swipe card from her handbag to swipe them into the building. Cyrus arranged with security for Abby to have electronic access to the building under the guise Abby was working on a special project for the President and needed a private secure location to work on it.

Once inside, Abby guided the gladiators to the Truman Study where they would be meeting to do their "gladiator wedding planning." The room was named after President Harry S. Truman who used the room as his temporary office when he lived in Blair House while the White House Residence went through the Truman Balcony construction. Although Blair House also had a large conference room in the space, Abby thought the space was too big for their small group. Also, they were planning a wedding, which was an intimate happy event, a smaller intimate space would be more conducive for them to work in.

Abby had already arranged for notepads, pens, writing board on a stand, and dry ease markers brought over from the White House to Blair House for their meeting.

Once everyone was settled in, Quinn asked "Isn't Liv joining us?"

"Liv told me to start the planning meeting without her. She and Fitz are waiting for Karen and Teddy to arrive at the Residence for their visit and they want to tell them about them the news they were getting married."

Huck then asked "Speaking of breaking the news of their wedding, when will they be telling Mellie?"

"Liv mentioned something about asking Mellie to meet her at OPA tomorrow but both them will be there to break the news to her. They didn't want to ask her to come to the White House to get the news because it might rub salt into wounds. They figured OPA would be neutral territory," replied Abby. "All right, let's get started. Liv and Fitz have decided to have a late afternoon-early evening wedding, which means we will need to do cocktail reception plus a dinner. The idea is that we'll do the cocktail reception before the wedding and dinner afterwards. Since this wedding is a secret, we can't ask the White House kitchen to prep it…"

"How about an outside caterer?" asked Marcus. "My cousin is a caterer. Since this is a secret wedding, the ideal situation is the fewest number of people outside the guest list to know. I can arrange for my cousin to prep the food and I can pick up the food and bring it to Blair House. I'll tell her that OPA has a client and one of things we are doing is putting together a "no-fuss" buffet dinner with a cocktail reception. I just need to tell her what Liv and Fitz want to serve."

"Aren't we going to need servers and bartenders for the cocktail reception and dinner?" asked Quinn.

"You only need servers if you are doing passed hors d'oeuvres and a sit-down dinner. If you have appetizers presented on platters, the guests can self-serve, and if a dinner is a buffet, it can also be self-serve. But, will Liv and Fitz be ok with the idea of self-service for their wedding reception? We are talking about the President of the United States and the new First Lady standing in line and serving themselves dinner."

Abby replied "I think Liv and Fitz can handle slumming for one night as America's First Couple. Liv and I did talk about the issue of servers and if we were to have them, they would need to sign non-disclosure agreements. But, Marcus, if there is an alternative to having servers, Liv might be open to it and we wouldn't have to deal with non-disclosure agreements. We can talk about the idea of self-service cocktail reception and dinner buffet some more when Liv gets here."

"Won't we still need a bartender for the cocktail reception?" asked Huck

"We might not need a bartender for the cocktail reception if we limit the drink menu to wine, champagne and soft drinks for the kids. I'm willing to pour. I'm presuming we are having soft drinks since Fitz's kids will be there."

"Yeah, as well as Susan's daughter and Cyrus's daughter. I think Liz North's daughter might be there, too."

"Liz North is also invited, too?" asked Huck. Huck didn't trust Liz North because of her involvement with Andrew Nichols who had been responsible for Olivia's kidnapping.

"She has to be invited because of her position as the Susan's Chief of Staff," answered Abby. Abby was already concerned about telling Liz about the wedding since she was the person who leaked the White House photos of Olivia and Fitz to Sally Langston. Abby was thinking they would actually have to use the cover story of Fitz having a New Year's Eve get together at Blair House to get her to attend, and the invitation included her daughter. Liz would attend the get together as professional courtesy.

Marcus then added "If we do go with the self-serve route for the dinner, then we would need to set up a bar in the dining area so the guests so refill their glasses."

"Ok," said Abby as she wrote down the word "servers" with a question mark next to it on the writing board. She also wrote "type of food" with a question mark next to it. "When Liv gets here we can also ask her what kind of food they want and if the idea of self-service is acceptable. In terms of where we are getting the food, we have the possibility of Marcus's cousin. For the drinks, we can go the wine store to get the wine and champagne, and the soft drinks from the supermarket," said Abby. On the writing board, Abby wrote down the words "food" with "Marcus's cousin" next to it, and "drink" with "champagne", "wine", and "soft drinks" next to it.

"We are still going need to linens, plates, glasses, and silverware," said Abby. "I'll find out if we can use Blair House's items"

"Won't we need to wash up afterwards to hide the fact we had a wedding here? We may not want to be doing dishes after partying," said Quinn.

"We can do party rental," responded Marcus. "To maintain discretion, I can have my cousin order the party rental and I can also pick it up from my cousin. The great thing with the party rental is that we don't have to the dishes. After we are done, we just pack everything up and return it back to the company. Have Liv and Fitz decided their color scheme? We need to know this for linen rental."

"How do you know so much, Marcus?" asked Quinn. She didn't think Marcus's previous life as a community organizer would have made him an expert party/event planner.

"I worked for my cousin's catering business when things were at a low point after Mayor Verrano scandal. I also picked up stuff when I was a community organizer/activist and worked on planning fundraising dinner events."

"We'll keep that as a secret when you officially start working at the White House or you might find yourself planning those tea parties and state dinners," said Quinn.

"We'll ask Liv about color scheme," replied Abby as wrote down "color scheme" with a question mark next to it. Abby then wrote "party rental" on the board with "Marcus's cousin" next to it. "Your cousin's catering business is going to be the flow through operation for this secret wedding. You know, once we issue the official announcement about Olivia and Fitz being married, the White House can give your cousin and her catering business a special recognition for their contribution to the wedding."

"I'm sure she'll appreciate it," said Marcus happily. A special recognition from the White House would no doubt promote business for Janel. "What about the cake and flowers? You can't have a wedding without a cake and flowers."

"The cakes are handled," replied Abby. She was keeping her wedding cake contribution for the reception as a secret from everyone. "For the flowers, Liv will need a bouquet and Fitz and Cyrus will need boutonnieres. We'll need a floral arrangement in the sitting room where we will have the cocktail reception and wedding, and also one for the dining room where we'll have dinner. I don't suppose your cousin works with a florist?"

"Well, actually, we have another cousin who is a florist and he is the go-to guy for Janel. I can talk to Kevin about the flowers."

"How are you going to explain the need for a bridal bouquet and boutonnieres without it arousing suspicion?" asked Huck.

"I could say the special client we are handling is planning a secret wedding. No one needs to who the client is," replied Marcus.

"That might work. Liv and I talked about how the wedding would be paid for and she decided it would go through an OPA expense account to give the impression that it is an OPA business activity. Obviously, Liv and Fitz are using their personal monies to pay for it but they are dumping the monies into an OPA expense account."

Quinn then asked "What about Olivia's dress? She can't go out shopping for a wedding gown."

"Originally, I was thinking you and I would need to go shopping for her but believe or not, Olivia found a dress on the internet she liked," replied Abby. "I did give her some advice about wedding gown sizing based on my past personal experience. For some strange reason, wedding gown sizes run two sizes smaller than what is on the label. She ordered her dress on the day before Christmas Eve and is having shipped overnight which means it should be arriving at OPA today or tomorrow. She used a fake name to order the dress and I let her use my credit card to pay for the dress so that people don't link the two together."

Quinn was scanning the writing board before she said "I think we are going to need to rent a van to transport stuff around, or or does your cousin have a van we could borrow, Marcus?"

"I think it would be better if we rented a van, Quinn," said Huck. "If we are pretending that we are planning a secret wedding for a special OPA client, we should give the impression that we are doing it which means making expenses for the wedding."

Quinn responded back "I think you're right. So, do you think we are going to pull off having a secret presidential wedding on New Year's Eve?"

"We are cause we're gladiators," said Huck unequivocally.


	11. Mellie's Bubble Burst

_December 27 – 5 days before the wedding_

Olivia and Fitz knew breaking the news of their upcoming wedding to Karen and Teddy would go the easiest, and it would be a toss-up as to who give them a harder time, Mellie or Rowan. They already told Karen and Teddy yesterday when they arrived at the White House Residence for their post-Christmas visit. They told Karen first while Teddy was playing in his room since she was older and the three of them would probably have a more detailed conversation, and that was the case when they told Karen when the wedding was going to be…

 **Flashback**

 **Karen looked at her father and then Olivia before asking "Are the two of you getting married on New Year's Eve because Olivia is pregnant?"**

 **Olivia and Fitz exchanged a glance before Olivia replied "Yes."**

" **Ok. You know Mom is going freak out when she finds out…"**

Mellie "freaking out" was what Olivia and Fitz were preparing for as the two of them waited for her to arrive at OPA. Neither one of them was nervous about breaking the news of the wedding to Mellie, and they knew they would be taking a chance in Mellie being able to keep quiet about the wedding, but given the choice of telling her before it happened as an act of courtesy or her finding out after the fact, they would rather deal with Mellie's wrath and hysterics before the event. They would already be dealing with some negative media fallout from the secret wedding, they didn't need the comments of an angry bitter ex-wife added to the mix.

With Rowan, Olivia decided it was best for the three of them to meet at her apartment since it would be neutral territory. Olivia didn't want to put Fitz in the position of entering into the home of the man who was responsible for his son's death, even if the man was going to become his father-in-law. Conversely, Olivia didn't want her father to simply walk into the White House to meet with them since the White House was Fitz's home and Fitz didn't need to put into the position of having to welcome his son's murderer into his home.

Olivia and Fitz's plan was they would meet Mellie in the morning at OPA and see Rowan in the evening. However, they were only able to reach Mellie to actually schedule a meeting. Olivia had been trying to reach Rowan since yesterday but hadn't been able to even after leaving a number of voice messages on his cell phone.

When Fitz told Cyrus he needed to have his schedule cleared in the morning so he could go with Olivia to OPA to meet with Mellie to tell her the news of the wedding, Cyrus with his macabre sense of humor asked if he could come along so he could see Mellie get arrested for threatening the life of the President. No doubt Cyrus would use it to dismiss Mellie's credibility as images of a disheveled Mellie in handcuffs surrounded by law enforcement officers appeared on TV screens across the country, a stark contrast to the images of a triumphant Mellie with her filibuster.

The OPA gladiators offered to be at the office to provide support and/or extra protection should Mellie get physical. However, Olivia had the gladiators work on their assigned tasks as part of the wedding planning – Marcus was meeting with his cousin Janel to discuss the party rental and the menu for the pre-ceremony cocktail reception and after-ceremony dinner, as well as meet with their cousin Kevin on the floral arrangements for the wedding while Quinn and Huck were busy arranging for a van rental and going to the wine shop and supermarket to purchase the beverages they needed. Since it was the holiday season, they didn't want take the risk of the wine shop and the supermarket being out of stock should they wait until the day before New Year's Eve to make their purchases.

Since both Fitz and Olivia had Secret Service agents with them, they had sufficient protection in the event Mellie should get physical. After all, the agents were trained to tackle and they would tackle Mellie if it was warranted. While neither Olivia nor Fitz wanted any harm to come to Mellie but if she should get violent, the agents would have no choice other than to subdue her.

Fitz glanced at his wrist watch and saw it was 8:55AM. Olivia asked Mellie to meet her at OPA at 9AM. When Olivia called Mellie to set up the meeting yesterday, Mellie was so eager to meet with Olivia that Mellie offered to meet with Olivia yesterday, rather than waiting a day later. Olivia suspected Mellie's eagerness to meet was based on the presumption they would be meeting to talk about Mellie's presidential campaign and getting it launched. Olivia hadn't bothered to clarify as to what the meeting was about out of the concern Mellie wouldn't show up. Also, Olivia knew she needed to clear the air about her being Mellie's campaign manager for her bid for the presidency which would be a resounding "no" since Olivia would be taking on the role as First Lady, as well as being pregnant. Olivia being Mellie's campaign manager while being First Lady would be the biggest conflict of interest imaginable in presidential elections – it would create the impression the White House was paving the way for Mellie to be Fitz's successor. The fact that Mellie was Fitz's ex-wife and had been former First Lady didn't preclude her from being POTUS, even though some might argue being former First Lady did not create a presumptive right to the presidency, either.

The two of them, along with their agents heard the elevator bell ding. Olivia and Fitz knew it would be Mellie exiting out of the elevator.

"Why don't you stay here while I go out and see Mellie first," said Olivia. The two of them had been waiting inside Olivia's office.

"Sure."

Fitz sat on one of the sofas waiting for Olivia and Mellie and could hear the two of them exchange pleasantries through the open office door. Judging from Mellie's tone, she sounded like she was fawning over Olivia. Fitz raised his eyebrows and rolled his eyes slightly when he heard Mellie's gushing. From what Karen told them, Mellie was on an incredible high from the filibuster. Adding the anticipation of Olivia taking on the job of being her campaign manager, Mellie was probably on cloud nine.

When Olivia and Mellie entered Olivia's office, Fitz stood up and wished he could have pulled out his cell phone and to take a photo with of Mellie's expression when she saw him. Whatever happy expression she had when she first arrived at OPA was replaced with surprise disappointment. "Fitz, what a surprise. I wasn't expecting to you see here," said Mellie unable to hide her disappointment.

As soon as Mellie saw Fitz in Olivia's office, she knew Olivia's invitation for them to meet had nothing to do with launching her presidential campaign. Fitz's presence at OPA already suggested the two of them planned to tell her something she didn't really want to hear but knew was going to happen eventually. "Since you are here, I'm presuming the two of you have something to tell me," said Mellie in a controlled voice.

Mellie knew she had nothing to gain by getting angry and make threatening overtures, especially with Secret Service agents standing close by. Perhaps if she maintained her cool and played her cards right, she might be come out ahead in the situation, such as getting Fitz to make appearances for her presidential campaign and still having Olivia as her campaign manager. Her hope was Olivia and Fitz would have long engagement and the wedding would take place after Fitz's term ended. If they got married after Fitz was no longer president, Olivia could serve as her campaign manager. Even though some people would still say it might be a conflict with Olivia as the President's fiancée to be her campaign manager, she figured Olivia would have a way to spin the situation to make it acceptable.

Olivia was standing next to Fitz when she said, "We do. We're getting married."

"Fine."

"Fine?" asked Fitz with surprise. He expected Mellie to be at least upset. The fact she wasn't was already suspicious. Then it dawn upon Fitz that Mellie wasn't upset because they hadn't dropped the other shoe as to when the wedding was going to be. "Mellie, you should know Olivia and I aren't waiting to get married."

"I see. When is your wedding?"

Fitz replied "New Year's Eve."

"New Year's Eve?! New Year's Eve?! That's 5 days away!" exclaimed Mellie as she paced around Olivia's office. After she stopped pacing, Mellie said "How could the two of you do this to me?

Mellie looked at Fitz and said in a venomous voice "Oh, you couldn't wait to get your precious Olivia pregnant with your baby, could you? As if having one America's baby wasn't enough for you?" She then turned her attention to Olivia and said "You owe me, Olivia Pope. You stole my husband. I let your murderer father out of prison…"

Olivia then said in a loud voice "Stop it, Mellie. Right now." Mellie immediately stopped her ranting and realized she had gone too far.

"Fitz, I need to have the room. Mellie and I have a few things to discuss," said Olivia in a controlled voice.

Fitz left Olivia and Mellie alone in Olivia's office and went to the conference room. The two of them spoke in loud enough voices that he could hear bits and pieces of their conversation.

"…I didn't steal Fitz from you…"

"…You knew he was married and slept with him…What does that make you?"

"…Stop it, Mellie. Just grow up. Your marriage was already broken long before I came along. You're angry with Fitz and me because he and I are in love with each other, which is more than what you had with Fitz when the two of you were married…

"…How could you say that?" I stayed married to him after what happened to me…"

"…I'm sorry for what happened to you with Big Jerry but you have to stop blaming Fitz for it…The person who you should blame is long dead…"

"…I couldn't have told him…"

"…Look, I understand you not telling him because you felt shame for what happened but Fitz would have never blamed you. And if you are going to tell me Fitz wouldn't have believed you, then you should have never married Fitz in the first place if you didn't trust him. He knew what kind of man his father was…"

"…There was his political career to think about…"

When Fitz heard Mellie's comment, he was about to interrupt them but stopped when he heard Olivia say "You need to be honest with yourself as to whether Fitz's political career was more important to you or to him. You know Fitz wouldn't have made you into some kind of sacrificial lamb for his political career. Had Fitz known, he would have taken you away to keep you safe and cut off all ties with Big Jerry. He would have figured out some other way to launch his political career without Big Jerry's help and money. Or did you think he couldn't do it without Big Jerry and the Grant family fortune? Or worse, were you afraid Fitz would drop his political ambition and aspiration because Big Jerry wasn't around to push him. If there was no political life for Fitz and no Grant money to fall back on, the two of you would have been regular people. A working couple with successful legal careers raising a family but without the wealth, privilege, and power that would have set you apart from everyone else…"

Mellie's non-response gave the answer Fitz suspected about the life he had with Mellie when they were married. The life he had with Mellie was predicated on him following a particular path in life and having money and had he not followed it and been wealthy, Mellie wouldn't have been a part of it.

Olivia went on to say "In regards to my father, you ultimately made the decision to let him out of prison. You didn't have to, Mellie. You did it so you could use it against me. I asked you to do it to save Fitz and his presidency because he did something he shouldn't have because he loves me and was trying to keep me alive when your traitorous boyfriend had me kidnapped who I might add ultimately betrayed you. I wouldn't had to ask you if the Senate didn't try to impeach Fitz, and the only reason why the Senate was able to proceed ahead with the impeachment hearing was you gave them the vote it needed to start the process. You gave the Senate the vote after Fitz made it clear to the world he wasn't hiding me anymore which goes back to what I said before about you being angry with Fitz and me for being in love with each other. I admit letting my father out of prison was wrong and I regret it. Now my murderer father is walking free and both of us have to take responsibility for it, and Mellie, you need to be very careful because this can come back to haunt you. Especially once you announce your candidacy to run for president."

When Mellie remained silent, Fitz had a suspicion Mellie was realizing the error in her decision in letting Rowan out of prison. Mellie must have said something in a low voice when he heard Olivia saying out loud "For a woman who graduated the top of her class at Harvard Law, I can't believe you actually just said you can have my father locked back up in the prison. Have you forgotten you got him a pardon to let him out?"

"…You're right. But, Olivia, you have to help me come up with a plan to get your father back in prison. He can't be out roaming around…"

"…"Mellie, I can't help you. Getting him locked up the first time was hard enough. Trying to do it for the second time is going to be harder because he's going to be smarter in not getting caught…We are just going to have to deal with the consequences…I don't want to talk about my father any more. Getting back to the subject of the wedding, Fitz and I want Karen and Teddy to be there." Even though he and Olivia knew Karen was old enough to make the decision about attending without Mellie's approval, Teddy was a different matter. However, out of respect to Mellie as their mother, they were asking for her approval for both of them.

Olivia then added "We would also appreciate you not telling anyone about the wedding beforehand."

Fitz realized Mellie must have been pre-occupied with the problem of Rowan and the possible trouble Rowan could cause for her with her presidential candidacy when he heard her reply "Fine. Whatever." He had expected Mellie to at least put up a fight about Karen and Teddy being in attendance. He then saw Mellie coming out of Olivia's office and walking out of OPA without saying a good bye to him.

As Mellie was walking out, Fitz went back to Olivia's office and saw Olivia with a grin on her face. "I guess Mellie is too worried about my father either derailing her presidential aspirations or blackmailing her not to care anymore about us getting married and having the kids at our wedding."

Olivia picked up her cell phone to make a call and when the call went to voice mail, she proceeded to say "Dad, it's Olivia. I need to meet with you…"

As Olivia was leaving her voice message, Fitz was thinking _One down, one more to go,_ as he and Olivia prepared to deal with the final hurdle before their New Year's Eve wedding.


	12. Father of the Bride MIA

_December 29_ _th_ _– 3 days before the wedding_

After spending 3 days trying to reach Rowan, Olivia decided to deploy Huck on the mission of trying to track down her father while Quinn and Marcus dealt with the wedding. Although Fitz suggested getting Jake on the job, Olivia told Fitz it was better to let Huck handle the matter. When Huck came to the White House to drop off her presents for Fitz on the 23rd, he told her that he had a "private meeting" with Rowan on the 22nd, and from that meeting, he learned some things. Huck told Olivia of his suspicion of Rowan using Jake as a wedge between her and Fitz, and so long as Jake was around, Rowan could manipulate the situation. After her talk with Huck, Olivia decided it was best to keep Jake at a distance which was why she hadn't bothered to tell Jake about the New Year's Eve wedding.

Yet, not telling Rowan was a different matter. As her father, he deserved at least to know about her getting married directly from her, rather through some media announcement. However, telling him about the wedding raised the delicate matter of Rowan being actually invited to the wedding and him attending it. Olivia didn't need Rowan to be present at the wedding - Olivia's relationship with Rowan wasn't normal and she had never the thought she needed or wanted her father to give her away on her wedding day. Whether or not Rowan entertained the sentimental thought of giving her away on her wedding day, Olivia had no idea but she didn't feel Rowan earned the right to give her away even if he was her father.

On the contrary, Fitz was conflicted about Rowan being present at their wedding. Not that he thought having Rowan at their wedding would improve their relationship or be a peace offering but he was thinking about the situation as a father. He hoped his relationship with Karen and any future daughter he would have with Olivia would never be at a place where his daughter didn't want him in her life. He learned that lesson the hard way when his drinking had been out of control as the result of him dealing with the devastation of Olivia's involvement with the Cytron-Defiance voting fraud and neither Jerry nor Karen wanted to be around him. As a father, he would want to be present at his daughter's wedding. Ideally, he would get to give her away, which he hoped in Karen's case wouldn't happen for another at least a decade or so. If the baby Olivia was carrying was a girl, he hope he would be healthy enough to walk down the aisle with her, figuring he would probably be at least in his late 70s when the time came.

On the flip side of the situation, also thinking as a father, Fitz knew Rowan took away his eldest son's chance to marry and to have a family when Rowan ended Jerry's life. With that, Fitz didn't want Rowan present at their wedding. However, the matter of Rowan actually coming to their wedding at the moment remained a moot issue since they haven't been to tell him the news. Once they told him, they could finally decide on Rowan's presence at their wedding.

Since Olivia's calls to Rowan went directly to voice mail, it already suggested his cell phone was turned off and it was confirmed when Huck tried to locate him using his cell phone signal. Huck then checked for any banking and credit card activity but didn't find anything. Huck also knew Rowan had the ability to go under the grid so not being able to find him may have been intentional on Rowan's part.

Huck's next step was to go Rowan's home to check to see if he might be there. There was the possibility something might have happened to Rowan inside the house which was the reason why he hadn't called Olivia back. Since Olivia didn't have a key to the house, Huck would have "break into" the house but Olivia warned him in advance that there was probably some kind of high-tech alarm system in place which he would have to disable it in order to get inside.

When Huck got to Rowan's house, he first checked the driveway to see if Rowan's car was parked outside but he didn't see the car. He also checked the mailbox and saw a small pile of mail accumulating inside the box which indicated the mail wasn't getting picked up.

Since Quinn was working with Marcus on the wedding, Huck recruited Charlie to help him with the break-in job. Since the wedding was a secret, Huck just told Charlie that Olivia was trying to get in contact with Rowan but hadn't been able to and he hadn't been able to track down Rowan through his cell phone, banking, or credit card use. For the job, Charlie was in charge of disabling the electronic alarm system remotely and once the system was disabled, Huck would be able to pick the front door lock for him to enter.

Huck got a text message from Charlie in code letting him know the system had been disabled and he could proceed ahead. After picking the lock and entering the house, Huck saw the house was dark with no lights on. As he walked through the living room, Huck didn't see anything suspicious that would suggest Rowan may have been taken from his home. When he was in the kitchen, he checked the refrigerator and found it was empty. Huck knew Rowan liked to cook and would have groceries in the refrigerator. Huck then went upstairs to check the bedrooms and bathrooms. He saw that Rowan's bed was made and the room was neat and tidy. The other room, which included Olivia's old room, also looked neat and tidy. The bathrooms were also clean and tidy. For his final check, he went through desks and drawers in hopes of trying to find some possible piece of information that would give some suggestion or idea as to where Rowan might have gone but his search turned up empty.

Rather than calling Olivia on the phone to let her know what he found, he thought it would be best to tell her in person and the two of them would come with some kind of plan on what to do next. After Huck locked the front door and closed the door behind him, he got into his car and called Charlie.

"There's no sign of Rowan at his home. I'm heading over to the White House to talk to Olivia. Can you check on the status of Jake?" Huck wanted to know if Jake was also missing in action and wondered if Jake and Rowan might be together.

"Will do," replied Charlie. "I'll call you back."

"Thanks." Huck ended the call and put his cell phone away. He then started the car and headed to the White House.

Since the OPA gladiators had a standing visitor pass to the White House, Huck went through the security check at the East End to head up to the Residence to see Olivia. He found Olivia and Karen sitting in the living room looking at some party dresses which Huck presumed were for Karen.

When Karen saw Huck and the expression he had on his face, she knew Huck had something important to discuss with Olivia privately so she excused herself to her room so Olivia and Huck could have some privacy. When Olivia and Huck were alone, Olivia said "I'm helping Karen pick a dress to wear for the wedding." She then asked "What's the news about my father?"

"It looks like he has gone off the grid. His car wasn't in the driveway and the mail hasn't been picked up. The refrigerator is empty. There's no sign he was taken against his will. Since he has access to a plane, he could have flown out and we wouldn't have any way to find out since he didn't need to buy a ticket or wouldn't have gone through standard airport security check-in."

Her father disappearing was Olivia's biggest concern since her father had the way of showing up at the most inopportune time. She wanted to let her father know about her and Fitz getting married and have it been done with. With her father "gone", a cloud hanged over her and Fitz as they proceeded with their wedding and their married life together. With her being pregnant only complicated the situation in that she and Fitz didn't need her father showing up and causing trouble for them with a new baby in their lives. She knew her father well enough, and after what Huck told her, for her to have concerns that her father would use her children as some kind of pawn for power rather than simply loving them because they were his grandchildren.

Huck's cell phone then rang. When he checked his phone, Huck saw it was Charlie calling him. "What did you find out, Charlie?" he asked.

Huck listened quietly to what Charlie was saying to him and when Charlie was done, Huck said "Thanks for checking. Let's check to see if Rowan might have purchased a ticket as well. We should use all of his known aliases. After I finish meeting with Olivia, I'll head over to OPA. See you soon."

After ending his call with Charlie, Huck turned to Olivia to say "I had Charlie check on Jake's status. Jake purchased an open ticket to Paris and flew out the day after Christmas."

"Do you think my father might be with Jake in Paris?" asked Olivia in a surprise voice. The last time she spoke with Jake, it was at her apartment hell bent on finding her father and exacting his vengeance on Rowan because he thought Rowan was responsible for his wife Elise's murder.

"It's something we can't rule out, Liv. If the two of them are hanging out together, it could mean trouble."

Olivia was hoping Jake and her father weren't together because she knew what Huck said was true – if her father and Jake were "hanging out" together, it would mean they were planning something and more than likely, what they were planning would be something bad if her father had anything to do with it.


	13. Wedding Day

_New Year's Eve – Wedding Day!_

Fitz helped Teddy get into his winter coat while they were inside the East End entrance before they climbed into the unmarked SUV that would drive them over to Blair House for his wedding to Olivia. Even though Blair House was only across the street from the White House, however, because of security reasons, Fit couldn't be walking out in the open. After climbing into the SUV and making sure Teddy was properly buckled into his car seat, they made it over to Blair House in less than five minutes. They were lead into Blair House through a backdoor by Secret Service agents. Once Fitz and Teddy were inside, they were greeted by Cyrus.

"Hi, Cyris," said Teddy with a big smile. "Daddy is marrying Libby today."

"Yes, I know," said Cyrus. Cyrus offered to take their coats so he could hang them up in the coat rack that was by the door. After hanging up the coats, he looked over the handsome father-son pair and saw they were both wearing dark suits with a dark tie. Since Fitz and Olivia were having a small intimate less than formal wedding, Fitz forgone the tuxedo for a dark suit. When Teddy saw his father was wearing a suit for the big day, Teddy insisted he wanted to wear one, too. "You look handsome in your suit, Teddy. Just like your father." Teddy beamed when he heard Cyrus's compliment and followed his father's instruction of saying "thank you" to Cyrus for the compliment.

Cyrus, who also dressed in a dark suit with a dark tie, had an ivory rose boutonniere on his left lapel said "Before I forget, I need to put this on you, sir," as he reached into his blazer pocket to pull out an ivory rose boutonniere. As he was pinning the boutonniere on the left lapel of Fitz's blazer, Cyrus said "Mr. President, everything is all set."

Cyrus knew Olivia's team of gladiators had been hard at work in setting up for the wedding. They picked up the party rental from Marcus's cousin Janel's catering company the day before and had been at Blair House setting up the reception area for cocktail hour and the dining area for the sit-down down buffet dinner. On the day of the wedding, Huck and Marcus picked up the food and flowers from Janel and brought them over Blair House.

Cyrus then added "The guests have arrived and the judge is here."

"Good," said Fitz. Cyrus led Fitz and Teddy to the sitting room where the guests and judge were having the pre-wedding cocktail reception and waiting for the ceremony to start. Fitz saw Marcus standing behind the bar table overseeing the drinks. As he glanced around the room, he didn't see Huck. "Cyrus, where's Huck?"

"He's upstairs standing guard in front of Olivia's room as she gets ready."

"Oh," said Fitz with a big smile. "Is that to make sure I don't enter into the room before I'm supposed to?" he asked with an impish smile.

"Actually no, sir," responded Cyrus with a serious look. "He's worried about potential trouble that might upend the wedding from happening."

"I see." While Fitz didn't expect any trouble from the cast of characters that could cause trouble but he could understand Huck's concern. Until he and Olivia said their "I do's" in front of the judge, it was possible for something to happen to stop them from being married.

Mellie called him the following day after getting news about the wedding to tell him that Teddy could stay with him until after the wedding. She mentioned something about Teddy would be all excited about the wedding and probably would be talking non-stop about it and she didn't have the patience to deal with it. Fitz took it as a sign Mellie was staying away from the wedding as far as she can and perhaps her way of getting even with them for getting married. It meant Karen and Teddy were both with him and Olivia on their wedding night but it was a much better alternative rather than dealing with a histrionic Mellie on their wedding day or a Mellie trying to sabotage their wedding.

In the case of Jake, while Jake had been his romantic rival for Olivia but in the end, Olivia chose him and was having his baby. Even though Fitz wasn't worried about Jake showing up at the last minute from Paris to stop the wedding but Jake's long connection to Rowan could mean trouble for him and Olivia, and if Huck was correct, Rowan would use Jake to come between him and Olivia. Indeed, Olivia suggested going forward it would be best if Jake was in the periphery of their lives because of Jake's connection to Rowan. However, Rowan was the person who Fitz worried the most about. The fact Rowan had gone missing wasn't a good sign – an unaccounted Rowan could only mean trouble, especially if he was using the time away to plot and scheme.

Cyrus also shared Huck's concerns about the wedding being upended which was why he asked for additional agents to be posted around Blair House during the wedding. Although the wedding was a well-guarded secret, Cyrus had to break confidence with Secret Service because Olivia was about to become First Lady. While some of the required security measures were already in place when Olivia moved into the White House, such as her having a code name and a group of agents providing her protection, but additional measures would be put into effect such as her having new cell phones with secured lines and being issued a Providence key to get armed escort access into the bunker in case of a national emergency. The head of Secret Service already met with Olivia the day before to go over the new measures.

Nonetheless, even with the additional Secret Service protection, Cyrus knew that wouldn't stop Rowan. Pitting the ruthless killer who headed a covert spy operation in the CIA against all of Secret Service, Cyrus would put his money on the ruthless killer covert spy. Although Rowan didn't know about the wedding, he would find out once the media announcement was made and Cyrus was certain Rowan would re-surface from wherever he disappeared to. Cyrus needed to get the White House ready to do battle with Rowan to protect Fitz, Olivia, and their family but that was something he could worry about after the wedding.

"We can worry about Rowan later, Mr. President. Let's focus on getting you and Olivia married today."

"That's an excellent idea, Cyrus. I'll go say hello and thank you to the judge and to the guests before I head upstairs," said Fitz. He and Olivia decided to dispense with tradition of having the groom wait for the bride to come down the aisle, instead they would walk down the aisle together, or in this case, enter the room together.

After Cyrus told Teddy that Ella was in the corner of the room with Michael, Teddy went off to find Ella. Since Ella was close to his age, Teddy had a playmate to keep him company during the party. With Teddy's attention directed elsewhere, Fitz was able to make his round of saying hello and thanking the guests for coming, as well as speaking with the judge before the wedding.

The guests, those in the know and those who found out once they arrived at Blair House, expressed their congratulations to the happy bridegroom as he made his round.

One of the adult guests who was surprised to find out he was attending a secret presidential wedding was Charlie. He had been lead to believe he was attending a New Year's Eve party hosted by the President of the United States and Olivia Pope. While he wasn't angry at Quinn for not telling him what was actually happening, Charlie wasn't quite sure about his presence at a presidential wedding. He wasn't exactly the typical VIP guest given his background as a former spy now a contract killer for hire and an occasional private investigator who worked on retainer for Cyrus. However, his occasional good deeds in helping OPA with their work and his "relationship" with Quinn provided him some respectability. Since Quinn was busy helping Olivia to get ready for the wedding and Huck was guarding the bride's "ready room" and didn't need backup, Charlie was standing by the drinks table with Marcus who he met through Huck and Quinn. He figured it was best for him to stick with a member of the gladiator team so he wouldn't feel completely out of place.

For Leo who was smoozing it up with the Vice President and the US Attorney General during the pre-wedding cocktail hour, finding out he was actually attending a secret presidential wedding made his New Year's Eve celebration. He was initially insulted that he wasn't in the know about the wedding from Abby beforehand but when Abby reminded him about his propensity not to be discreet, he decided it to let the matter go. He was glad he let the matter go when Abby told him it was Olivia who extended an invitation to him to the wedding. Leo knew Olivia Pope and President Fitzgerald Grant III could have had a secret wedding with only Cyrus and Abby present. The fact they were having a very small intimate wedding with the people closest to them meant he was regarded as part of the close circle, so he had nothing to complain about in the end.

In contrast to Liz's situation spending time with the Vice President and US Attorney General on New Year's Eve wasn't on her top ten ways to celebrate. However, since Olivia and Fitz's wedding was so small, she didn't have much of a choice as to who she could join in for cocktail hour small talk – either with Susan, David, and Leo or with Marcus and Charlie. Michael was busy entertaining Ella and Teddy while her young daughter Jane and Susan's daughter Casey were sitting together on sofa chatting away. Nonetheless, Liz was managing the awkwardness of being in the company of her former "sex buddy" David who was now "paired off" with her boss. While it stung her that David would choose Susan over her but Liz wasn't interested in David enough for a relationship – he didn't check off the boxes she needed or wanted in a new husband. He wasn't rich or powerful enough. Also, he wasn't a Republican. She wanted a real Republican, not the kind who currently held the highest and second highest office.

Along with managing the personal sting of David dropping her, she was also dealing with professional sting of not being told about the wedding. When Liz walked into Blair House with Jane, she had expected a small New Year's Eve party to be held. However, when she saw the large floral arrangement which screamed out "wedding", she suspected she and her daughter hadn't been invited to a New Year's Eve party hosted by the President and his girlfriend but rather it was the wedding of the President and his girlfriend. She also put two and two together and realized why Fitz and Olivia were having a quickie secret wedding rather than the expected big society affair expected of a US president getting married was because Olivia was pregnant.

As the Vice President's Chief of Staff, Liz was insulted about not being in the loop about the wedding. Granted she had been out of the office for a few days during the Christmas holidays but when she got back to the office on December 27th, Cyrus could have told her what was happening but instead she was told Fitz and Olivia were having a New Year's Eve party over at Blair House and she and Jane were invited. When she confronted Cyrus privately about the matter, Cyrus laid out the situation to her…

 **Flashback**

" **You've been invited as a courtesy by the President and Olivia since they wanted the Vice President to attend," said Cyrus.**

 **Cyrus then added "Lizzie Bear, I know the truth."**

" **What are you talking about?"**

" **About the leaked photos of the President and Olivia to Sally Langston. I've stumbled across a copy of David Rosen's report on the investigation of the leaked photos and I asked Red about it. This is the reason why you weren't told about the wedding. This is how this game is going get played – either you can become a team member or face the consequences."**

" **Are you threatening to fire me, Cyrus?"**

" **Absolutely not. I can't fire you but I can close you out of the loop. And in a place like the White House, being closed out of the loop is the kiss of death."**

" **What do you want?"**

" **For you to be a team member. As a team member, you will do everything to support the White House, which includes not undermining the future First Lady and her team."**

" **You don't mean Olivia's band of misfits…"**

 **Cyrus cut her off with "The correct term is gladiators and yes, they will be working at the White House. Frankly, I will take Olivia's gladiators over any Republican Party pedigreed supporter working at the White House. At least I know they will be loyal. That's your choice, Lizzie Bear…"**

Liz knew the choice she would have to make if she wanted to stay working at the White House and still be included in the loop. She considered herself fortunate Fitz didn't know she was responsible for the leak. Had he, she would definitely be out of the White House, regardless if she was the head of the Republican National Committee.

The remaining adult guest who hadn't been in the know was Michael but he didn't care. Even though he took on the job de facto of looking after Ella and Teddy as the wedding festivities were getting underway, he didn't mind. Being the spouse of the White House Chief of Staff meant a privileged life he couldn't have imagined having when he had been living on the streets. As part of the privileged life was being a guest at a secret presidential wedding and just being able to be there was something he would treasure. Michael now knew he couldn't take his new life for granted.

After Fitz finished making his round of saying hellos and thank yous, he went upstairs to the guest room where Olivia was getting ready with help of Abby, Quinn, and Karen. When he arrived at the room, he saw Abby, Quinn, and Karen leaving the room with Huck standing outside the door.

"She's ready," said Abby to Fitz with a big smile. Abby, Quinn, and Karen then headed downstairs to the sitting room. Huck continued to stand guard outside the room when Fitz went inside.

Fitz's breath was taken away when he saw Olivia in her wedding gown and holding her bouquet of ivory roses, orange blossoms, and baby breaths with ferns. Olivia chosen an ivory satin A-line dress with an illusion sweetheart neckline beaded lace bodice and tulle overlay skirt. Instead of a veil, she decided to wear her hair in a French knot secured with pearl and crystal hair comb. For her jewelry she complemented the hair comb with a pair of pearl and crystal drop earrings.

Fitz finally managed to say "You are so beautiful, Livie."

"You look pretty handsome yourself, Mr. President," said Livie as she admired Fitz in his dark suit. "Are you ready to get married?"

"Are you kidding? I've been waiting for this moment from the first time we met." Fitz then crossed over the room to where Olivia was standing and gave her a passionate kiss. After their kiss, he said "We better get downstairs or Cyrus will think we started our wedding night before the wedding and will come barging into the room to haul us downstairs before the judge."

Fitz took Olivia's hand and held it as they walked towards the door. When he opened the door, Huck moved aside to let Fitz and Olivia to walk out. As Fitz and Olivia headed downstairs to the sitting room, Huck was following close by but giving the bride and the groom their space.

When Fitz and Olivia walked hand-in-hand into the sitting room, their guests came to attention. The judge moved to the spot where he would officiate the ceremony and where Fitz and Olivia stood in front of him.

The judge began the ceremony with "Fitzgerald and Olivia, today we are here to join you in marriage and to share in the joy of this occasion which should be one of the most memorable and happy days of your life. On this day of your marriage, you stand somewhat apart from all other human beings. You stand within the charmed circle of your love; and this is as it should be. Love should be the core of your marriage, love is the reason you are here. But it also will take trust - to know in your hearts you want the best for each other. It will take dedication - to stay open to one another; to learn and to grow together even when this is not always so easy to do. It will take faith, to be willing to go forward to tomorrow, never really knowing what tomorrow will bring. In addition, it will take commitment, to hold true to the journey, you both now pledge to share together."

The judge asked "Fitzgerald, do you take Olivia to be your wife?"

"I do."

"Olivia, do you take Fitzgerald to be your husband?"

"I do."

When judge requested "The rings, please," Cyrus took out two wedding bands from his inner jacket pocket and placed them on the judge's leather portfolio binder. Fitz's ring to Olivia was a Tiffany Etoile three row pave diamond band in platinum which had _I belong to you Fitz_ inscribed on it. Olivia's ring to Fitz was a simple platinum band with _Over the cliff Livie_ inscribed on it.

The judge continued on "The wedding ring is a symbol of unity, a circle unbroken, without beginning or end. And today, Fitzgerald and Olivia give and receive these rings as demonstrations of their vows to make their life one, to work at all times to create a love that is whole and unbroken, and to love each other without end."

Fitz removed Olivia's ring from the leather portfolio and as he slipped the ring on Olivia's left hand ring finger, he said, "Livie, before these witnesses, I promise to love you and care for you as long as we both shall live. I take you, with all your faults and strengths, as I offer myself to you with all my faults and strengths. I will help you when you need help, and will turn to you when I need help. I choose you as the person with whom I will spend my life."

Olivia then removed Fitz's ring from the leather portfolio and as she slipped the ring on Fitz's left hand ring finger, she said, "Fitz, before these witnesses, I promise to love you and care for you as long as we both shall live. I take you, with all your faults and strengths, as I offer myself to you with all my faults and strengths. I will help you when you need help, and will turn to you when I need help. I choose you as the person with whom I will spend my life."

The judge concluded the ceremony with "By the authority vested in me by the laws of the District of Columbia, it is my great honor to pronounce both of you legally wed. Congratulations, Mr. President, you may kiss your wife," to which Fitz eagerly followed the judge's instruction.

After their kiss, judge announced "Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to present America's First Couple, President Fitzgerald Grant III and First Lady Olivia Pope Grant," and the guests broke into applause.

After a round of congratulatory handshakes and hugs, Olivia and Fitz led their guests to another sitting room that was set up for their sit-down self-serve dinner reception. With such a small wedding, instead of the traditional arrangement of small round tables, a large rectangular was set up for community style dining. The bride and groom sat together in the middle on one side with Teddy sitting next to Fitz and Karen sitting next to Olivia, and the other guests sitting around the table. Food for the dinner had been kept warm in elegant "silver-style" chafing dishes on a separate service table, while the drinks were on another table. The beautiful wedding cakes Abby baked and prepared for the wedding were showcased on a separate table.

Olivia, whose morning sickness subsided enough for her to eat on her wedding day, Fitz, and their guests enjoyed a buffet of sirloin tips in a mushroom sauce, grilled chicken breasts in an herb sauce, lemon sole, risotto-style baked rice with artichokes and tomatoes, and roasted vegetables, which was topped off with wedding cake. As everyone celebrated the marriage of America's New First Couple, there was no thought about the outside world, well at least, for the moment…


	14. New Year's Eve at the WH

**Sorry for the delay in progressing with the story. I hope you enjoy!**

 **AN: Olitz's bedroom scene in Episode 5x05 was the inspiration for the setup for the wedding night.**

* * *

It was almost 9PM when America's new First Family – President Fitzgerald Grant III, First Lady Olivia Pope Grant, First Daughter Karen, and America's Baby now Preschooler Teddy - arrived back at the White House after celebrating the wedding of America's new First Couple. The drawback of Olivia and Fitz having their wedding on New Year's Eve was that they were now juggling the situation of celebrating New Year's Eve with Karen and Teddy as well as it being their wedding night. With Karen, it was the matter of not making her uncomfortable or having her feel embarrassed and in the case of Teddy, the concern was privacy, in particular, him waking up in the middle of night and coming into the master bedroom needing Fitz. Teddy was too young to understand the concept of a wedding night and what it meant.

Karen knew her mother "stuck it" to her father when Mellie told Fitz that Teddy could stay with Fitz until after the wedding. She was glad her baby brother was too little to understand he had been used by their mother as a means to ruin their father's wedding. When Karen found out her father and Olivia were getting married on New Year's Eve, she thought it would be best for her and Teddy to spend the night with their mother so their father and new stepmother could have privacy for their wedding night. However, when she learned from her father what her mother had done, Karen knew her intention to support her father had been squashed.

To mitigate the situation, Karen offered to watch Teddy so give Fitz and Olivia some "private" time together before the four of them toasted in the New Year at midnight. She came up with the idea of her and Teddy "camping" out in the living room with Teddy's favorite DVDs while Daddy and "Libby" had "special grown-up time" together, and right before midnight, Daddy and "Libby" would join them in living room to watch on TV the crystal ball in NYC Times Square drop. Fitz promised Teddy that he could stay up to watch the New Year's Eve countdown on TV. Even though Fitz promised Teddy he could stay up, he wasn't sure if Teddy would be able to stay awake until midnight.

As soon they were in the Residence, New Year's Eve camp out plan was set into motion. Karen changed out of her party dress into a sweatshirt and leggings and set up the living room for the camp out. She brought out blankets and pillows and retrieved Teddy's favorite DVDs – the two _Cars_ movies and the _Despicable Me_ movie series.

Meanwhile, Fitz was in the master bedroom changing out of his dark suit into his favorite Navy sweatshirt and pants. As he was changing, Olivia was sitting at her vanity table and was undoing her hair. After undoing her hair, Olivia got up from her chair and moved away from the vanity table so she could unzip her wedding gown. When Fitz watched Olivia struggling with the gown zipper, he came up from behind her to help her with the zipper. "Here, let me help you."

When Fitz was done with the zipper, Olivia said "Go give Teddy his bath so I can slip into something more appropriate for our wedding night"

"Yes, Madam First Lady," said Fitz in a seductive voice before taking her into his arms and giving Olivia a quick kiss on the lips. After letting Olivia go, he left bedroom to head towards Teddy's room to get Teddy changed out of his suit and into the bathtub. During the bath, Teddy was in an exuberant state, letting Fitz know how much fun he had at the wedding playing with Ella, and being allowed to have both the vanilla wedding cake and the chocolate wedding cake. He also told Fitz he was going to be a "big boy" tonight by staying up to watch on TV the New Year's Eve ball drop. When Teddy was done with his bath, Fitz helped to dry him off and get him into his pajamas. Once Teddy was in his pajamas, Fitz had him brushed his teeth. After brushing his teeth, Teddy ran off to the living room where Karen had their "camp" set up while Fitz tidied up the bathroom. Fitz then went to living room to check on Karen and Teddy and when he got there, he saw the of two of them snuggled with blankets with their backs propped up with pillows as they watched the beginning of the first _Despicable Me_ movie. Fitz, content with the knowledge that Teddy was being occupied with a movie and Karen was in the living room which was some distance away from the master bedroom, then eagerly returned to the master bedroom.

When he got back to the master bedroom, Fitz saw Olivia sitting in bed with the duvet and sheets pulled back. She was wearing a cream colored satin slip with black lace trim. A classic vinyl record player was sitting on top of the bedside table.

"Are we going to be listening records on our wedding night?" asked Fitz as he approached the bed.

"I was thinking we could use loud music as a cover," replied Olivia with a chuckle as she placed the record player needle on the record. As the first track on a Patti LaBelle album played, Olivia adjusted the volume so they hear each other in the room but loud enough so that anyone listening outside the bedroom couldn't hear them. She reached for Fitz when he got to the side of the bed. She helped him removed his sweatshirt and pants and when Fitz only had his boxers on, he got into bed with Olivia. While he held her, he said "I love you, Livie."

"And I love you, Fitz."

Fitz didn't want Olivia to be uncomfortable and asked "Are you up for us to make love? I know morning sickness can make it hard…"

Olivia knew Fitz had been holding back during the past several days with lovemaking because of the morning sickness. She wanted to let him know not only was she feeling up for them to make love but she also eager for it. To let him know, before Fitz could finish his sentence, Olivia shifted her body so she was straddling him and then bent down to give him a passionate kiss. Once Fitz felt Olivia's tongue slip into his mouth, any thoughts about being a "gentlemanly" husband went out the window and all he could focused on was kissing Olivia back. As their two tongues were in a playful duel, each one trying to claim the other, Fitz's hands first roamed over Olivia's body over the slip, and then he slipped his hands underneath the slip so he could feel Olivia's bare skin. As they were coming up for much needed air, Fitz's hands slipped from underneath the slip so he could pull the slip off of Oliva. After Olivia helped Fitz remove her slip, she was only wearing a black lace thong.

They shifted their bodies again so Fitz was hovering over Olivia as she lay on the bed. Fitz was concerned the hormonal changes during pregnancy made Olivia's breasts sensitive to touching. "Will it be painful for you if I caressed your breasts?"

"No," she replied as she guided Fitz's hand to her breasts. Olivia then said "I need you to touch me," as she pulled Fitz down for a kiss. As they kissed, Fitz, without any hesitation, gently caressed Olivia's breasts. Using his fingers, he teased one of Olivia's nipples into a hardened bead. After they separated from their kiss, Fitz made a trail of kisses from Olivia's chin to her throat to down to her chest. With each of his kisses, Olivia felt her body was on fire and all she was focused on was Fitz.

When Fitz reached her breasts, he gently cupped and caressed each one in his hands. Olivia made her pleasure known with a soft moan. Oliva's sound of pleasure gave Fitz the encouragement he needed to take one of Olivia's nipples into his mouth, first for a kiss which was followed with a gentle suck. Fitz then positioned his body so he could suck Olivia's nipple while he slipped his hand slipped underneath the elastic band of her thong so he could touch her clitoris. When his fingers found her clitoris, he gently massaged it as he continued on sucking her nipple.

"Feels so good, Fitz," said Olivia in a pleasure filled voice.

When Fitz shifted his attention to Olivia's other nipple, the fingers that were massaging Olivia's clitoris moved further downward and then Olivia felt two of Fitz's fingers slide inside her. Olivia gave a pleasure moan as she felt Fitz's fingers slide in and out of her and his mouth surrounded her nipple. Then all too soon, Fitz's fingers slid out of her and he shifted his body so he could kiss the valley between her breasts and kissed his way down Olivia's still flat tummy. As he was kissing her, he murmured "So beautiful. So perfect." When he reached the top of Olivia's lace thong, he paused his kissing so he could remove Olivia's thong.

A completely naked Olivia then felt Fitz's mouth on the most intimate part of her body. "Oh, oh," she moaned as she relished in the pleasure Fitz was giving her. Their sexual abstinence made Olivia eager for her climax from Fitz's mouth and tongue on her. "Fitz, please, I need to come," she begged. Fitz obliged her beg when he focused his tongue on Olivia's clitoris to bring her to the peak she so wanted. Olivia could feel the pleasure in her body climbing higher and higher as she felt Fitz's tongue licking her. Soon Olivia felt her body explode and every cell in her come alive as she cried out "I'm coming, I'm coming."

While Olivia was still feeling the aftershock of her orgasm, Fitz raised his body up he could remove his shorts. Olivia helped him along in the act and when he was completely naked, Olivia saw his magnificent erection and needed to touch him. She touched the pre-cum fluid that was at the tip of Fitz's hard penis before she wrapped her hand around his penis and stroking it. As Olivia stroked him, they moved their bodies so Fitz was lying on the bed with Olivia on top of him.

After giving Fitz as passionate kiss on the mouth, she made a path of kisses down his well chiseled chest and abs. When she reached his erection which she still had in her hand, she released her hold and then took his penis into her mouth. As Fitz felt Olivia's mouth and tongue around his hard penis, he moaned his pleasure. When Fitz reached to the point where he felt he was about to come, he said "I need to be inside you, sweet baby." Olivia then moved her body so she was straddling over his erection. Using her hand, she guided his erection to her entrance and in one full motion, she slid him inside her.

Fitz reveled in the sensation of being inside Olivia. "You feel so good, sweet baby." He caressed her as she rode him while the two said "I love you" over and over to each other. They were each anxious to reach their climax as Olivia rode Fitz harder and faster with Fitz moving in sync with Olivia. He said "I'm real close, Livie," to let Olivia know he was getting to close to his orgasm. Since he was close, Fitz wanted Olivia to come with him and using his fingers, he found her clitoris and massaged it. The combination of riding Fitz and having his fingers on her pleasure pearl, Olivia knew she was getting close to her climax. When Fitz felt Olivia tightening around him, he urged her with "Come for me, my sweet baby. I love you." Olivia then cried out the pleasure of her orgasm. "Oh Fitz!" While Olivia's body rocked with pleasure, Fitz knew he couldn't hold back any longer and gave into his own explosive release of pleasure. He gave a guttural groan as his hot seed erupted from his body inside Olivia's.

Olivia collapsed on top of Fitz from the intensity of the pleasure of her orgasm. He wrapped his arms around her as they moved their bodies apart from each other so Olivia could lie next to him.

They snuggled up against each other in bed with big smiles on their faces.

"Cat nap before we toast in the New Year with the kids?" asked Fitz while he stroked Olivia's nose with side of his index finger. Olivia nodded her head and Fitz took his cell phone from the bed side table and set the alarm so they would wake up 15 minutes before midnight. After Fitz turned off the record player, he held Olivia in his arms as they settled in for a short nap.

When the alarm rang at 11:45PM, Olivia and Fitz slowly got out of bed to get dressed. While Fitz got dressed in the bedroom, Olivia went to their walk-in closet to find a pair of leggings and a pullover top. After they got dressed and left the bedroom, they went to the family kitchen in the Residence. Fitz got a bottle of chilled apple juice from the refrigerator while Olivia retrieved four glass tumblers from the cupboard. Fitz then pulled out a tray from a drawer and set the apple juice bottle on it with Olivia putting the tumblers on the tray afterwards.

They left the kitchen with Fitz carrying the tray and headed towards living room where Karen and Teddy were. Much to their surprise, they saw Teddy wide awake dancing with Karen in the living room. They had _Dick Clark's Rockin New Year's Eve_ on the TV and were dancing to the musical performance. The sight of Karen and Teddy dancing in the living room made both Olivia and Fitz laughed. Since Karen and Teddy were so focused on their dancing, they didn't know Olivia and Fitz had come into the living room until they heard Olivia's and Fitz's laughter. They turned their turned heads and Teddy said with a laugh "Daddy, Libby, me and Kare-Kare are dancing to welcome the New Year."

In the spirit of the happy situation, neither Fitz nor Olivia bothered to correct Teddy's grammar. Instead Fitz said "It looks like you and Karen are having a good time dancing."

"We are," said Teddy happily.

After Fitz set the tray filled with the apple juice bottle and empty glass tumblers on the coffee table, he held out his hand to Olivia and said "Madam First Lady, I just remember you and I haven't had our first dance as a married couple."

Olivia took Fitz's hand as he wrapped his arm around her waist and brought her body closer to him. As Fitz held Olivia close to him, he began to sing-hum the old romantic song _I've Got You Under My Skin._ While Karen and Teddy were dancing to the rock number on TV, Fitz and Olivia slow danced to Fitz's singing-humming. When the TV musical number ended, Karen looked at the TV screen. "Dad, Olivia, five minutes to midnight."

After they finished dancing to Fitz's singing-humming the final bars to the song, they exchanged a light kiss so not to embarrass Karen and Teddy. They broke away from each other so Fitz could open the bottle of apple juice and pour juice into each of the tumblers. Everyone took a tumbler and sat in front of the TV. Fitz had one arm around Olivia with Teddy in between with Karen leaning next to Olivia.

When the 20 second countdown began along with the Time Square New Year's ball downward descent, the four of them counted down as well. When they saw the ball reach its mark and the screen flashed "Happy New Year", the four of them yelled "Happy New Year!" and clink their tumblers of apple juice before taking a sip. As the four of them were sipping apple juice, America's new First Family was basking in the glow of the start of a new year. Especially for America's new First Couple who were now starting their long awaited life as a happily married couple with a baby on the way, there was no better way for them to start the new year…


	15. A Cloud Hangs Over

_January 3rd_

Olivia and Fitz, in consultation with Cyrus and Abby decided to make the announcement about their marriage the day after New Year's. The choice of January 2nd was practical one in that if they made the announcement on New Year's Day, it would have meant White House staff having to come in on New Year's Day to deal with the aftermath of the announcement. Olivia and Fitz didn't want the staffers to lose their New Year's Day holiday. However, the staffers were notified at home on New Year's Day to be prepared for something big when they came into work on the 2nd. With that said, the past 24 hours at the White House had been a crazy whirlwind.

After the making the initial press announcement about Olivia and Fitz getting married on New Year's Eve, it was followed by Olivia and Fitz doing a photo op in the White House and answering a handful of questions. The White House communications and press teams were in full swing in handling questions about the wedding and Olivia's role as America's new First Lady, as well requests for Olivia and Fitz giving joint interviews and/or Olivia giving solo interviews. As part of the White House press-media package on the new First Couple was Olivia and Fitz needing to wear their wedding clothes again so the White House photographers could take official "wedding" photos that would be disseminated to the media even though the photos were after the fact.

The White House also needed to deal with the congratulatory messages sent from the public, Washington DC political scene, and world leaders concerning Olivia and Fitz's marriage. However, along with the happy well wishes that White House received, there were also the mean spirited messages, some which were threatening. The threatening messages were passed along to the Secret Service for their assessment on the potential harm that might result. Fitz had already expressed his wishes with the Secret Service in wanting all threatening messages directed towards Olivia to be assessed. He also remembered the abuse Olivia suffered when their relationship became public and he did not want her to be exposed to it should there be members of the public who opposed their marriage because they were an inter-racial couple.

Fitz anticipated he and Olivia would be part of the news cycle for at least a few more days unless some A-list celebrity got into some trouble, or as Susan Ross suggested, Prince Harry got engaged. As the news of his marriage to Olivia spread throughout the globe, he was already anticipating the re-appearance of Rowan. Fitz knew Rowan wouldn't stay away once he found out about the marriage. He was already anticipating Rowan causing trouble for him and Olivia, in particular doing something to break them apart.

At the current moment, all Fitz could do was to wait for Rowan's re-appearance. Along with dealing with the situation of being the object of intense media attention for the moment, Fitz also needed to concentrate his attention on his work as POTUS. Congress would be back in session in a few days and the White House and Congress would start the wrangling of getting the spending bill amended and passed.

Fitz was sitting at the Resolute Desk reviewing documents from the White House Legislative Affairs Office on the spending bill when Cyrus entered the Oval Office. Cyrus was accompanied by David and FBI Director John Greeley. When Fitz looked up from his documents and saw three men with grim expressions on their faces, he knew something was wrong. Fitz got up from his seat and walked around his desk to greet David and John. After greeting the two men, Fitz said in somber voice "Gentlemen, judging from the expressions on your faces, something is up."

John was the first to speak. "Mr. President, before I begin, I just want to congratulate you and the First Lady on your marriage. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but this is an extremely serious and unfortunate matter. I received a call from a field agent with the news that your father-in-law has been found dead in the woods in Virginia. A group of hikers came across his body."

Fitz was stunned shock with the news of Rowan's death. He couldn't believe Rowan was dead. "Are you sure it is him?"

"The identification found on him says Rowan Pope. When the identification was found, a check was done which lead to his connection to the First Lady as her father, and which is why the FBI was notified. Nonetheless, the First Lady will need to make an identification of the body to verify it, though. The local law enforcement working with the FBI located Mr. Pope's car which was found in front a cabin. It seems he had been in staying in the cabin for a number of days. The cabin is not too far from where Mr. Pope's body was found."

"Cause of death?" Fitz was concerned Rowan's past may have caught up with him and was the victim of a murder. If that was the case, it was possible whoever went after Rowan might come after Olivia, especially now she was First Lady.

"At this point, the medical examiner's initial assessment in the field is natural causes but he won't know for sure unless there is an autopsy which is something the First Lady will have agreed to. The time of death is in the past 24 hours. Based on the FBI's assessment and evaluation of the cabin, there is no evidence that something suspicious happened. The working theory is that Mr. Pope went out for a walk and may have a suffered a heart attack or stroke, collapsed and died."

Fitz hearing the cause of death as being natural didn't meant anything. In the espionage world it was possible to disguise a murder to be a death by natural causes.

John continued on with "Mr. Pope's body is in the process of being transported to the FBI morgue. Once they have the body, the First Lady can come to identify the body."

"All right," said Fitz.

"I'll notify Cyrus when the body arrives and I'll keep David in the loop should anything in the FBI investigation turns up something."

"Thanks, John."

"Your welcome, Mr. President," said John before leaving the Oval. When Fitz, Cyrus, and David were alone, Fitz said "We need to make sure there is nothing suspicious about Rowan's death."

"Especially since we don't know if Rowan disappearing into the Virginia wilderness was done of out of necessity," said Cyrus.

"David, I know the FBI is investigating, but I also want Huck and Charlie to look into Rowan's death as well. The FBI doesn't know about Rowan's connection to the CIA and B6-13. Rowan's cover story is that he is a Smithsonian curator. Huck and Charlie might be able to come up with a timeline of his activities leading up to his death, and whether there is something suspicious in the timeline."

"I think that's a good idea. I'll pass on any information the FBI has to them and will help them get access to any information they might need to create the timeline," responded David.

"Good," said Fitz. "I'm going need to break the news to Olivia."

"Where is she?" asked Cyrus.

"She's upstairs in the Residence. She had planned to go to OPA to work with her team on closing down the office but the morning sickness pre-empted it. Cyrus, call Olivia's team to let them know what's happened and instruct Huck to get in contact with David."

"Will do, and as soon I hear from FBI Director Greeley that the FBI has Rowan's body, I'll let you know so you and Olivia can go to the FBI to make the identification," said Cyrus.

"Ok." As Cyrus and David left the Oval through the door leading to Charlotte's office, Fitz left through the door that would take him in the direction of the Residence. As Fitz made the trip to the Residence, he wondered how Olivia would react to the news of Rowan being dead.

When he had gotten the news about Big Jerry's death, he had told Olivia in a matter of fact manner while they were on the airplane they were flying in during the campaign trail for his first run for the presidency. He only cried when the two of them were alone in the yard at the California ranch house. She made it safe for him to cry. Olivia knew he needed to, not because he loved Big Jerry but because he hated Big Jerry and needed to grieve for the pain and loss of a father-son relationship he wished he had with Big Jerry but hadn't. In Olivia's case, he didn't know if Olivia loved or hated her father. Nonetheless, whatever Oliva felt for Rowan, he would be there to do whatever necessary to help her through this time.

When Fitz entered the master bedroom, he found Olivia lying on the bed, on top of the duvet with a blanket covering her. Her eyes were closed so he didn't know if she was sleeping or simply resting. As he got closer to the bed, Olivia opened her eyes and turned her attention to him. "Mr. President," said Olivia in the sexy tone that drove him wild.

If it was any other situation or circumstance, Fitz would have flirted back with Olivia and reply back with a "Madam First Lady" in a sensual baritone voice. Rather he said "Livie" in a tone that Olivia immediately knew something was wrong. As she quickly sat up, she asked "Fitz, what's wrong?"

Fitz sat down on the edge of the bed next to Olivia and said "Livie, the FBI Director was in the Oval a few minutes ago. He got word that Rowan has been found dead in Virginia."

Olivia was speechless from Fitz's announcement. She couldn't believe her father was dead. Her father, the man who made a living of out murdering people had the ability to evade and had well-honed survival instincts. "It can't be, Fitz. Are they sure it is him?"

"They found his ID but you'll need to identify the body."

"When did it happen and how?"

"The medical examiner believes he has been dead for a day. They think it is natural causes but an autopsy is needed to confirm it."

"Fitz, my father isn't simply someone who just dies from natural causes. Either something happened to him or the man the FBI thinks is my father isn't my father."

"I know, Livie. That's why I want Huck and Charlie to create a timeline leading up to the death. David is going to do everything he can to get Huck and Charlie the information they need in order to do it," said Fitz. He then added "We can easily prove whether the dead man is Rowan through DNA testing. Even if your father had someone undergo plastic surgery to be made to look like him, the DNA can't be falsified."

"Where's the body now?"

"It's being transported to the FBI. Once the FBI morgue has it, we will get called so you can go over there to make the ID. If the DNA confirms the dead man to be Rowan, we'll ask the pathologist to run every test possible to find out the cause of death."

Fitz took Olivia in his arms and held her. As they two of them held each other, they knew Olivia couldn't grieve and mourn for her deceased father in the typical manner. Besides the difficult father-daughter relationship, Rowan's character and past made it hard to simply accept that he simply died and there had to be something more going on.

Couple of hours later, Olivia and Fitz, with Cyrus tagging along, were at the FBI morgue. When the forensic pathologist pulled back the sheet that was covering the deceased man claimed to be Rowan Pope, the three of them were looking at a dead man who looked just like Rowan Pope.

"Is this your father, Madam First Lady?" asked the pathologist in a kind and sympathetic voice.

"It looks like him," replied Olivia.

"We would like for DNA testing to be done to confirm that it is Rowan Pope," said Fitz firmly.

"Yes, Mr. President," responded the pathologist.

Fitz then added "Also please perform all tissue analysis and toxicology studies. Don't overlook anything."

"I'll make sure everything will be done."

"Thank you."

As Olivia, Fitz, and Cyrus walked away from Rowan's dead body, the pathologist covered the dead man's face with the sheet.

Fitz put his arm around Olivia's shoulders as the three of them walked silently out of the autopsy room. Surrounded by Fitz and Olivia's security detail, they maintained their silence as they made their way to the unmarked black SUV that drove them to the FBI. Once they were inside the car, they broke their silence.

"Well, the man did look like Rowan," commented Cyrus.

Fitz immediately responded "He did but it doesn't prove anything. We need DNA confirmation that it is Rowan. For all we know, the dead man in the morgue is an imposter leading us to think Rowan Pope is dead while the real one is alive somewhere doing God knows what."

"That's true, sir. Not to mention there is the matter on the cause of death. If it is really Rowan, we need to know how he died."

Olivia knew what both Fitz and Cyrus said was true. Until there was the evidence proving the dead man in the FBI morgue was indeed Rowan Pope and he did died of natural causes, anything was possible…


	16. An Uneventful Upcoming Year

**Posted on**

 **Author's Note:**

 **Sorry for the long delay updating this story. As always, I appreciate fellow fan fic writers and readers for their support for this story.**

 **While work has diverted my attention from the writing, I also confess my Olitz writing muses abandoned me when Scandal season 6 started up. While I tuned into season 6 via Hulu for Episodes 9 through 13 (hence the resurrection of the muses, especially from Episodes 10 and 11), I didn't watch any other episodes, which included the 2-hour season finale. After reading an assortment episode re-caps/synopsis on the 2-hour finale and watching an assortment of YouTube clips on the internet, I am more than resolved to not to watch the season finale and not to follow Season 7. As a die-hard Olitz-shipper, I feel after traveling through a desert, I finally found an oasis (from Episodes 10-11) but only to find out it was a mirage (from season finale).**

 _ **Warning - Below is my opinion on the future of Olitz on Scandal – jump ahead to the actual story if you don't want to read.**_

 **I'm conflicted as to whether the creative powers of SR and team will reconcile Olitz on Season 7 -**

 **One the one hand, based on what I read and seen on the season finale, it doesn't seem it is truly the end for Olivia and Fitz. Especially, if Olivia is heading into the dark force (Olivia with her straightened hair, she bears a striking resemblance to Maya which is quite scary), she is going to need someone to pull her back, which might be the potential role Fitz (working on the presumption TG's contract will be renewed for season 7) could play. The fact Fitz is starting up a foundation to correct the errors in the criminal justice system also shows he is taking up the role as the "white hat" gladiator which Olivia has abandoned for power.**

 **On the other hand, there is certain type of feminism that SR and team depicts on Shondaland productions which might have Olivia putting the brakes on herself. Alternatively, Olivia could go over the cliff with her power and self-destruct and all of it would be a cautionary tale on the corruption of power in the world of SR story telling.**

With Olivia as America's new First Lady, the death of her father would be newsworthy. However, to stem the tide of media curiosity into Rowan, the White House issued a brief press announcement about Rowan's death and letting the public know that there would be a private family burial for him. While Olivia and Fitz plus members of their inner White House circle were still dealing with the shock of Rowan's unexpected death, the business of running the country didn't stop. As part of the running of the country now included resurrecting the Office of the First Lady at the White House.

The Office of the First Lady, or OFL in its alphabet soup abbreviation, went through a slow shutdown when Mellie made the decision to run for Senate and officially "closed down" when Mellie was elected. The limited staff Mellie had maintained during her tenure as First Lady were either transferred to other administrative jobs at the White House or left on their own to pursue other opportunities when it became apparent the OFL would no longer be around with Mellie becoming an US Senator.

With a new First Lady "in office", the OFL would need to be staffed in order to conduct business. The former OPA gladiators were now the senior staff members of the OFL with Quinn as the Chief of Staff, Marcus as the Director of Policy Initiatives, and Huck as the Chief Information Officer. Although the White House had a centralized IT office, a special provision was made to allow the OFL to have its CIO with the agreement that the OFL CIO would provide his services and expertise to the White House at large when needed.

At the present moment, only Quinn and Marcus were available to help Olivia to get the OFL up and running. Huck and Charlie were assigned to investigate Rowan's death and to look for anything suspicious that might suggest Rowan's death was not due to natural causes. While Cyrus arranged for some temporary administrative support such as a receptionist and a secretary, any hiring of permanent staff, as well as having interns working in the OFL fell upon on the Olivia and her senior staff. Although no official jobs postings for the OFL had been drawn up, there were already applications submitted to the White House to be an intern for the OFL. Historically the number of internship applications to the OFL would be substantially less in comparison to other White House offices with the applicants being females, but with Olivia Pope Grant as America's New First Lady, both young women and men were submitting applications in equal numbers, with the total number of applications rivaling some of the competitive White House departments.

While Olivia and Fitz were at Olivia's OB/GYN for her first prenatal visit, Quinn and Marcus were surveying the OFL office space and taking stock about the size of the space. Unlike OPA which took up an entire loft floor, the OFL was a much smaller space with Olivia having her own office, a handful of small private offices and a large common work space. There was also a small conference/meeting room for the OFL team to have group meetings. Quinn and Marcus were relieved to discover that even though the OFL space had not been occupied by staff, it still remained furnished which meant they didn't need to work on folding tables and chairs while waiting for office furniture.

As Quinn and Marcus were looking over their new office space, Abby and Ethan, who was pushing a large utility cart filled with cardboard boxes, entered into the space.

After greeting each other, Abby asked, "What do you think? Do you need anything?"

"It's smaller than OPA but we will make do," replied Quinn with a big smile. She noticed the utility cart and asked, "What's in the boxes?"

"Files from the former First Lady. These were policy initiatives that Mellie worked on but when she became the junior Senator from Virginia…"

"You mean when Mellie got elected, she took off and dumped her First Lady work behind…" exclaimed Quinn.

Abby and Ethan exchanged a glance before Abby replied, "I suppose you could say that," as Ethan turned his head slightly trying to look ignorant on the matter.

"Oh, I don't believe this. Is Olivia supposed to clean up Mellie's mess as the new First Lady?" asked Quinn incredulously.

"No. I don't think anyone is expecting that," answered Abby trying to calm Quinn down.

However, Marcus chimed in with, "But I suppose we should take a look as what Mellie worked on before she left and see if there is anything we should pick up to smooth ruffle feathers as a result of Mellie walking off."

Abby concurred with, "That might not be a bad idea."

"If you want, I'll put these boxes into the conference/meeting room so they don't take up space in the office area," said Ethan.

"That would be great," said Marcus.

Ethan headed to the conference/meeting room leaving Abby with Quinn and Marcus in the office space area.

"How are you guys doing?" asked Abby in a solicitous voice. "I know there is a lot to take in being here in the White House, but don't worry Ethan and I are here to help you. Even though I need to back to the West Wing, Ethan is staying behind to give you an overview on White House administrative bureaucracy…"

"Oh, God," bemoaned Quinn slightly. The word "bureaucracy" was already making her feel agitated.

"It will be fine, Quinn. It is good thing for Ethan to give us the low down on the place. We need to know we have to be nice to so we can get our work done." said Marcus in a reassuring voice. "Do you know if there is a still a budget for the Office of First Lady? Since there hasn't been a First Lady, it is possible no monies have been allocated."

"Since the Office of First Lady will be staffed, there is a budget to pay staff. As far as monies to doing policy initiative work that is something Cyrus knows better. I'll let him know you are asking."

"Good. Since the President has a little bit less than a year to his term and we might have a limited budget, we are going to be "smart" in what the Office of First Lady will do to make the most impact."

"Just to give the two of you the heads up…" said Abby before Quinn injected, "What else do we need to worry about?"

"It's nothing bad. In fact, it might be a perk for being part of the First Lady's team…"

"What?" asked Quinn and Marcus simultaneously.

"The President is scheduled to go to Italy for a state visit. I know he wants Olivia to go with him. He wants Olivia to have the chance to represent the US as its First Lady on a foreign state visit."

"When is the visit?" asked Marcus. "With Olivia being pregnant, she might not be able to fly if she is too far into her pregnancy,"

"This visit is scheduled at the end of March. I know Olivia is seeing her doctor for her first prenatal visit today. If her doctor says it's ok for her fly, she is going to need to have members of her team to staff her during the visit."

Quinn and Marcus exchanged a knowing glance that said, "Yes, being a member of America's First Lady's staff will have its perks."

Abby then continued with, "As part of planning for the trip, there will be a White House advanced team meeting with you guys to go over details of the trip. While the President will be tied up meeting with the Italian Prime Minister and members of the Italian government during the visit, Olivia will have her itinerary of events for her to cover. At this point, Olivia's itinerary is free since the Italian government hadn't plan on President of the United States to have secretly married. The advanced team will be working you guys to figure out Olivia's itinerary."

"I know visiting a vineyard is not an option," commented Marcus jokingly.

"For sure," concurred Abby. "But there are other things Olivia might want to see or do. I'm presuming the Italian Prime Minister's office is scrambling putting together some options for Olivia to consider. However, before the state visit to Italy, we are hosting the Australian Prime Minister and her husband for a state visit in late February."

"What about the State of the Union address? Isn't that around February as well?" asked Marcus. While he expected things to hectic and busy at the White House, the scheduling of so many critical events seemed mind boggling.

"The general time frame for the State of the Union is late January to mid-February. We are trying to push back the date for the State of the Union as far as we can – the President and Cyrus wants to State of the Union to happen after the spending bill gets passed. So, it is possible the State of Union could take place right before the state visit with the Australian Prime Minister."

Abby paused before saying, "Another major event will be the Republican Party convention this summer where Republican Party presidential ticket will be named. Since Olivia is First Lady, she will be giving a speech at the convention, probably during prime time on the first day of the convention."

"So, between being pregnant, the State of the Union address, a foreign state visit, entertaining foreign dignitaries, speaking at the Republic Party convention, and day to day gladiating, Olivia won't be busy at all in the upcoming year as America's First Lady," said Marcus tongue in cheek.


	17. Weekend at Camp David

**Posted on**

 _2 weeks later (30 weeks to Baby Pope Grant)_

Fitz and Olivia were spending a working weekend at Camp David to prepare Fitz's last State of the Union address. Since Karen already returned to school, it was just the two of them along with Teddy and his nanny Marta leaving for Camp David on Friday afternoon, while Cyrus, Abby, and members of the White House speech writing team would join them on Saturday morning. It had snowed the day before and the grounds of Camp David were covered with enough snow to allow for fun and frolic.

Since Fitz knew his late Saturday morning and afternoon would be spent working with Olivia and the White House team on his State of the Union address, he promised Teddy that they would wake up early to play in the snow. Fitz kept his promise – father and son woke up early, bundled up in winter wear, and went out to play. Since Olivia was dealing with the side effect of fatigue caused by the pregnancy, she slept in and leaving father and son to have private time together.

Fitz and Teddy spent their time sledding and were now getting ready to make snow angels on the snow covered ground. The two of them laid on the ground with their arms and legs still.

"Ready, Teddy?" asked Fitz.

"Ready, Daddy," replied back Teddy with giggle.

Father and son then simultaneously fanned out their arms and legs to make the "angels". Fitz's and Teddy's Secret Service agents who were standing at a discreet distance so to give father and son their privacy found themselves hiding their smiles as they watched the most powerful man in the world and leader of the free world make a snow angel with his 4 year old son.

When they were done, Fitz and Teddy got up from the ground to admire their "work".

"What do you think, Teddy?"

"The angels look good, Daddy. Can we take a picture to show Libby?"

"Sure thing," replied Fitz as his pulled the down the zipper of his heavy snow parka so he could reach inside the inner pocket of the parka to retrieve his cell phone. After taking out his cell phone, he took a photo of the snow angels using the camera app on the phone. Fitz showed the photo to Teddy to which Teddy gave his approval. He put his phone back inside his parka and zipped up his parka. Fitz then took one of Teddy's hands with one hand while his other hand pulled the sled as the two of them walked back to their cabin

As they walked back to the cabin, Teddy asked, "Daddy, when we go back to the White House, can we build a snowman in the garden?"

"You don't want to build one here at Camp David?"

"No. We don't live here. I want to see the snowman."

Fitz chuckled at Teddy's reason for not wanting to build a snowman at Camp David. "If the snow hasn't been cleared away in the garden, we can build a snowman."

"Yay!" shouted Teddy.

Fitz was glad he took time in the early morning to spend with Teddy. It was a much needed respite for the two weeks he and Olivia had. They were multi-tasking an assortment of issues and concerns.

First, there was the matter of Rowan's death. DNA testing confirmed the dead man who they saw at the FBI morgue was Rowan Pope. However, knowing that nothing is ever simple or straight forward on matters concerning Rowan, they needed to explore the possibility that Rowan might have an unknown identical twin, that is, the dead man was an unknown identical twin and the real Rowan Pope was alive somewhere and would surprise them out of nowhere with his re-appearance. Their paranoia about Rowan having an unknown identical twin was leading them on a hunt for Rowan's birth records to find out if there was an unknown identical twin.

In regards to Rowan's cause of death, the pathologist's examination found Rowan suffered a brain aneurysm, a weakened blood vessel in the brain that ruptured and caused a massive hemorrhage. As it was explained to them by the pathologist, there was an assortment of risk factors for a brain aneurysm, such as hypertension or a structural defect in the blood vessel that a person is born with. Since Rowan never shared information about his health status or history with Olivia, they didn't know if Rowan had been at risk for the brain aneurysm. Little comfort was provided when the forensic pathologist commented he didn't find any indication from the autopsy that Rowan did have hypertension or had a structural defect in the blood vessel. With the autopsy unable to prove what caused Rowan's aneurysm, they had to consider the possibility that something happened to Rowan that caused the brain aneurysm that was not related to his health history or his biology. This concern prompted them consulting with world's leading experts on brain aneurysms to ask whether a brain aneurysm could be caused by an external factor.

As part of the investigation into Rowan's death, Huck and Charlie worked on creating a timeline leading up to Rowan's death. Between studying Rowan's car GPS activity and looking over traffic camera film footage that David managed to obtain, Huck and Charlie were able to trace

Rowan's travel activities. They hadn't found anything suspicious that suggested Rowan had been followed when he made his trip to the Virginia woods or made any unusual stops other than purchasing gas at a gas station and coffee at a bakery café during his trip. However, they did find out that Jake had spent Christmas with Rowan when they contacted Jake to let him know about Rowan's death. Letting Jake know about Rowan's death had been a courtesy since Rowan had the dubious role of being their "commander" during their B6-13 agent days. With the information Jake had seen Rowan before Rowan's death, Huck and Charlie was instructed to fly to Paris to see Jake in person to ask questions. An in-person meeting would allow Huck and Charlie to determine if Jake might be hiding something which they wouldn't pick up during a long distance phone conversation or a video Skype call. Huck and Charlie flew out Friday night DC time which meant they would have already arrived in Paris by now. They were told to call Olivia immediately after their meeting with Jake.

Fitz took comfort in knowing Jake was keeping his distance with Olivia. He didn't know if Jake was going to contact Olivia when the news about Olivia and him being married became public. Rather sending a congratulatory message to Olivia, Jake sent the message to him just with the just with the single word "Congratulations". Not that Fitz was expecting Jake to say more. He knew if the positon was in the reverse, he would find it hard to say more. In hindsight, Fitz regretted bringing Jake into the mix of his complicated relationship with Olivia, and the fact Jake was connected with Rowan only added to the problem. He should have kept Jake as his go-to military secret-ops guy and nothing more. At least with Rowan out of the picture, the concern about Rowan using Jake to come between him and Olivia was no longer present. He and Olivia could focus on building their life together as a couple with a baby on the way, even though they weren't exactly the average couple because of their positions.

The baby part was the other aspect of their personal lives they were dealing with in relation to Olivia starting prenatal care. Even though he had gone through the experience of having 3 children but he was reminded by Olivia's doctor, every woman's pregnancy is different and each pregnancy is different. In other words, what he went through or didn't go through with Mellie wouldn't necessary apply with Olivia.

Couple of days after getting the news of Rowan's death, Olivia had her first prenatal visit with her OB/GYN, Dr. Regina Douglas. Fitz accompanied Olivia for the visit and was making sure he would be present for every visit Olivia had. While he did accompany Mellie to her prenatal visits when she was pregnant with Teddy, he hadn't been as diligent and would allow a meeting to conflict with the appointment. For Olivia, he would make sure these conflicts wouldn't take place and already had a discussion with Cyrus to ensure this.

While Olivia's first visit took place at her doctor's office, Cyrus also needed to coordinate with Regina's office for Regina to come to the White House for Olivia's subsequent prenatal visits to minimize disruption to Regina's office – requiring the office to be shut down to other patients when they were there. Fortunately, the White House was equipped with a medical office which Regina could use. Even though Regina would be on-call to respond to any possible emergencies, Fitz also wanted Cyrus to arrange for the White House to have a certified nurse-midwife to be staffed at the White House during Olivia's pregnancy to provide immediate assistance should it be needed.

Olivia's first prenatal visit was normal and this was a relief to Fitz. He was concerned the stress of Rowan's unexpected death would result in health issues, such as hypertension, for Olivia that would ultimately affect the baby. The high point of the visit was Olivia getting a "dating" ultrasound scan which determined she was about 8 weeks along. The ultrasound also gave the two of them a first glimpse of their baby even though at that point the baby was about the size of a kidney bean and its sex unknown.

Regina also ordered the required blood tests for an expectant mother, and depending on the results of those blood tests, Olivia might need additional tests. Since Olivia was over 35, she was at an increased chance of having a baby with a chromosomal problem, such as Down syndrome. Fitz knew about the risk since he and Mellie had a similar type of conversation with Mellie's doctor when she was pregnant with Teddy. Mellie was already in her late 40s when she became pregnant with Teddy. However, Regina did also warn them of the possibility of false negative results with the traditional screening blood tests and there was an option of a more advanced blood test that Olivia could take when she at least 10 weeks in her pregnancy. So even when the results of the initial round of blood tests didn't reveal anything abnormal, Olivia opted to take the more sophisticated blood test as an extra measure when she did reach the 10 week mark of her pregnancy which was this week. Both he and Olivia were cautiously optimistic the baby was fine but were still anxious while they waited the result of the recent blood test.

They had another two weeks to get to the end of Olivia's first trimester mark which will be when they would make the public announcement about Olivia being pregnant, which included telling Teddy he was going to be a big brother. Fitz was already preparing for the possibility of Mellie manipulating Teddy in thinking and believing now that "Daddy and Libby were going to have their own baby", he was going to be "displaced" or "replaced" by the baby. As part of breaking the news of the new sibling, or technically, half-sibling, there would be reassurances to Teddy about being loved. However, with Mellie having primary custody of Teddy, Fitz knew Mellie could have the upper hand on the matter. Olivia already broached the subject with him of having the terms of custody arrangement renegotiated or legally challenged should Mellie create a situation where she was alienating the father-son relationship with her manipulation.

At this point, both he and Olivia were on track with the pregnancy but there was still the matter of Olivia being pregnant while dealing with PTSD. They had a meeting scheduled next week at the National Institutes of Health with a pregnancy and PTSD expert panel to ascertain what were the potential risks to Olivia with her continuing on with the pregnancy while dealing with PTSD. Olivia already had an initial consult with the American Trauma Victims Association's White House liaison about the PTSD and would be meeting with a therapist a regular basis to treat the PTSD. During her initial prenatal visit with Regina, Olivia disclosed she was suffering from PTSD and Regina would be medically monitoring PTSD symptoms that would affect the pregnancy.

Along with the private family matters, there were also the matters of state that needed attention. The spending bill which he hoped Congress would be working hard in getting it passed was nowhere near getting passed. Granted, Congress only resumed session for a week or so but given the debacle the resulted of the bill not getting passed before Congress left for the holidays, namely government employees not getting paid and critical programs not being funded, he would have thought Congress would have felt the fire in getting things moving along.

Then there was the issue about when he would be delivering his last of State of the Union address. He received the formal invitation as per protocol from the Speaker of the House to give the address couple of days ago. However, the formal invitation was followed with a phone call from the Speaker to Cyrus "asking" for the address to be delivered at the end of the month which was only couple of weeks away. Even though he and the White House speech writing team have been working on the address since the end of October, neither he nor Cyrus appreciated having the Speaker "pushing" on when he would be delivering his State of the Union address. His preference was to give the address after getting the spending bill passed so his address would be on begin on a high note rather than having the cloud of the spending bill being held up. There was a difference of opinion among the White House team members on how to handle the House Speaker's "request" and as the person who was getting paid "to be in charge", he would need to make a decision on what to do.

When Fitz and Teddy arrived back at their cabin, the two of them stomped their feet to loosen the snow that accumulated on their snow boots before entering into the cabin. When one of the Secret Service agents opened the front door to the cabin, Fitz and Teddy entered into the cabin and left the sled outside the cabin. Once inside, the two of them saw Olivia, dressed in a cream colored thick pullover sweater, black knit pants, and ankle boots, sitting in the living room area of the cabin and reading her copy of the current draft of the State of the Union address.

Olivia looked up from the document when she felt a cold draft rush into the room and knew Fitz and Teddy returned from their snow play date. She set down the document on the coffee table and walked over to door where Fitz and Teddy were standing. The agent who opened the door quickly closed the door to prevent more cold air from entering into the room.

Olivia gave Fitz a kiss on the mouth before asking, "Did the two of you have fun playing in the snow?"

Teddy immediately answered with, "We did, Libby" in a happy excited voice. "We went sledding. And we made snow angels. Daddy, show Libby the picture of the snow angels."

As Fitz unzipped his snow parka, he pulled out his cell phone from the inner pocket and brought up the photo of the snow angels on his phone screen. After he passed the phone to Olivia so she could see the photo, he took off his snow parka and hanged it on coat hook. He removed the scarf he was wearing and draped it over the parka. He then unlaced his snow boots so he could take off his boots and put on a pair of slip-on shoes. As Olivia was admiring the photo of the father-son snow angels, Fitz helped Teddy remove his outer winter wear.

Olivia laughed at the photo and said "This is so cute." She loved the contrast of Fitz's big angel to Teddy's little angel next to each other.

"You like it?" asked Fitz as he looked at the photo over Olivia's shoulder.

"I love it," she replied with a big smile as she handed the phone back to Fitz. Olivia noticed both Fitz's and Teddy's pants were wet from the snow. "I think the two of you need to change out of your wet pants into dry ones before we have breakfast. There is a big stack of pancakes waiting for us."

"Yay, pancakes for breakfast!" shouted Teddy excitedly as he ran towards his room. As he was running to his room, Marta popped into the hallway and said, "Teddy, I'll help you get changed," and the two of them went to Teddy's room.

Fitz and Olivia headed to their bedroom with Fitz's arm wrapped around Olivia's waist. He leaned in and whispered in Olivia's ear in a seductive voice, "So, Madam First Lady, are you helping me get changed?"

"No, Mr. President. You are a big boy and don't need any help."

"Too bad. I was looking forward to getting some help in getting undress," said Fitz as planted a kiss on Olivia's ear.

"Well, I might consider helping you later tonight…"

"Is that so?" asked Fitz as he gave Olivia a kiss while he opened the door to their bedroom. Once the door was open, the two of them stepped inside while still in an embrace and locked in a passionate kiss. After closing the door, Fitz managed to maneuver them over to the bed with Olivia lying underneath him. When they broke away from their kiss to come up for air, he asked "I don't suppose we have 20 minutes to spare…"

"No," replied Olivia firmly. "Teddy is waiting for us. Not to mention Cyrus, Abby, and the White House speech writing team will be here in an hour to work on the State of the Union address. Let's wait until tonight so we can savor." Olivia's voice then changed to a more serious tone. "While you change your pants we need to talk. Huck called me while you and Teddy were out playing."

Fitz moved off the bed and walked over to the closet so he could get a pair of dry pants. As he was removing the pants off the hanger he asked, "What did he and Charlie find out from Jake?"

"Jake spent Christmas Eve with my father and stayed over until Christmas Day. They ate, drank and talked. My father didn't give any sign that something was wrong. He told Jake he had rented a cabin in the woods and was looking forward to doing some fishing. Jake and my father made some kind of tentative plan to meet up when Jake got back from Paris. Since Jake had an open ticket, Jake didn't have a specific date when he was coming back from. Neither Huck nor Charlie think Jake is hiding something," replied Olivia while Fitz changed out of his wet pants into the dry pants.

Olivia asked, "Do you think we should just accept the possibility that my father did died of natural causes?"

"Before we can seriously consider that possibility, we should get hold of your father's birth record and find out what the brain aneurysm experts have to say," replied Fitz. He sat back down on the bed and took Olivia into his arms. "I'm sorry you are having to deal with your father's death while being pregnant. The stress of the situation isn't good for you and the baby."

"We're fine, Fitz," responded Olivia with a reassuring voice. 'Baby Pope Grant is made of tough stuff when you think what his parents have been through." Olivia was making unspoken references to Fitz surviving his assassination attempt and her narrowly escaping a bombing incident at the Capitol building as well as the living through her kidnapping.

Fitz broke away from Olivia and repeated, "His parents?" with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. "Are we having a boy?"

""His" just slipped out. I don't know what we are having. We agreed to not to find out about the baby's sex."

"I see," said Fitz. He was torn on whether he wanted them to be having a son or a daughter. Fitz would love to have a daughter who was replica of Olivia and both he and Olivia had gotten subtle hints from Karen about her desire for a baby sister since she already had a baby brother. However, with the loss of Jerry, Fitz hoped for another son even though another son would never replace his first born and namesake. Nonetheless, regardless if the baby was a son or a daughter, he wanted him or her to be born healthy.

There was knock on the bedroom door which was followed with a loud voice saying, "Daddy, Libby, I've changed. Can we go and have breakfast, please? I'm hungry."

"Sure thing, Teddy," replied Olivia with a hearty laugh. Olivia and Fitz got off the bed and headed towards the door. After opening the bedroom door, the three of them headed to the dining room to have their pancake breakfast.

After breakfast, Olivia suggested she head over to the cabin that was designated as a meeting/work space and where they would be meeting to work on the State of the Union address so Fitz could have some quiet time to go over the latest draft of the speech before meeting with the White House team. With Olivia and Fitz dealing with the State of the Union address, Teddy was under Marta's supervision.

After informing Secret Service that she was heading over the work space cabin, Olivia put on her winter outwear before heading out to the cabin. She and her agents made the trek from the president's residential cabin to the work cabin. Olivia stomped her feet to shake off the snow on her boots before entering the cabin. Inside the cabin were sofas and chairs plus a dry ease writing board for note taking. Olivia also noticed that the kitchen staff already set up a refreshment table with a coffee and tea service along with fresh fruit, yogurt, danishes, and pastries for the White House team that would be soon arriving.

After removing her winter wear and hanging it on a hook, Olivia took a seat on a sofa and was reviewing her copy of the latest draft of the State of Union address. At a White House meeting about the address, a question was raised on whether Fitz should make a reference about Olivia's policy agenda in the address. While she was interested in pursuing policy interests that were independent of Fitz's policy agenda, she was also interested in working on something that was connected to Fitz's agenda. However, she, Quinn, and Marcus were still going through binders of materials to find something that she could work on that would have an "immediate" impact since Fitz only had a year left in his term. In fact, while she was at Camp David, Quinn and Marcus were at the White House going through the binders.

Olivia was engrossed in her review of the State of the Union address when she heard a loud familiar voice outside the cabin door. A moment later, Cyrus and Abby, both bundled up in heavy winter outwear, entered the cabin. The Secret Service agent who opened the door quickly shut the door behind them so to prevent the cold air from entering the cabin. After exchanging greetings with Olivia, Cyrus quickly removed his winter outwear and hanged it up on a hook before heading over to the refreshment table to get a cup of coffee. As Cyrus was walking over to the refreshment table, Abby was still removing her winter coat and scarf and hanging it up.

Since his heart attack, Cyrus knew he should only have fruit and non-fat yogurt but he was in a foul mood because of the House Speaker's tactic of pushing the date of the State of the Union address and helped himself to a large cinnamon roll. Even though Olivia and Abby saw Cyrus taking the cinnamon roll, they knew better not to try to stop him since both of them knew Cyrus was in a bad mood and challenging him about the high fat and caloric pastry wouldn't help matters.

"Olivia, you need to talk to Fitz. He can't let the House Speaker dictate when the President gives the State of the Union…" said Cyrus in a frustrated agitated voice.

"He's not going to," replied Olivia smoothly.

Cyrus didn't hear Olivia's response and continued on with his rant as he ate his pastry and drank his coffee. "Where does the Speaker get the nerve to do this? This is probably Congress taking another shot at us because of the failed impeachment hearing. We are going to have to fight back."

Cyrus paused to think for a moment. "I've got an idea. The President doesn't need to give a verbal address to Congress. The President can give a written report that would meet the requirement. Maybe that is what we should do – have a White House messenger dump the report right on top the Speaker's desk and relay a "screw you" message from the White House…"

Abby whispered to Olivia, "Just to let you know he's been on a rampage throughout the trip to Camp David."

"I figured," Olivia whispered back. Olivia speaking in a louder voice said, "Cyrus, Fitz isn't happy about the situation, either. He'll handle the Speaker."

"What is he going to do?"

The cabin door then opened and Fitz entered into the cabin with the door closing quickly behind him. When Fitz saw Cyrus and Abby, he said, "Good morning, Cyrus. Good morning, Abby."

Both Cyrus and Abby responded with, "Good morning, Mr. President."

Fitz saw the cinnamon roll in Cyrus's hand and knew Cyrus was in a bad mood because of the House Speaker. He also knew in order to have Cyrus be focused on the working on the State of the Union, he needed to let Cyrus know he had a plan to "handle" the Speaker.

As he was removing his outer winter wear and hanging it up on a hook, Fitz said, "Cyrus, first thing Monday morning call the Speaker and tell him that we will take his suggested date under consideration…"

"Mr. President, you can't…" exclaimed Cyrus in a choking protest.

"Let me finish, Cyrus," said Fitz as he turned his attention to Cyrus and raised his hand. "Tell the Speaker we will take his suggested date under consideration but I will give the State of Union address when I am ready to." Fitz dropped his hand and gave Cyrus a presidential stance while he said, "Look, Cyrus, I'm not going to get into some ridiculous pissant fight with the Speaker over the date of the State of the Union. If we are going to shed blood, let it be for something that matters, like getting the spending bill passed which the way things are going, we may have to."

Cyrus feeling somewhat mollified that Fitz wasn't going to let the Speaker steam roll him on the date of the State of Union and saw validity in Fitz's point that they needed to pick and choose their battles, especially if there was a bigger fight looming, he responded, "I'll call the Speaker on Monday and relay your message to him, Mr. President."

"Good. Thank you," said Fitz with a smile. Seeing that only Cyrus and Abby had arrived, he asked, "Where's the speech writing team?"

"They're en route. The team decided to drive up separately," replied Abby quickly and hoped Fitz wouldn't ask why the speech writing team traveled separately. She didn't want Fitz to know the speech writing team didn't want to travel to Camp David with her and Cyrus on account of Cyrus's bad mood. 'I'll give them a call to find out their ETA."

"Thanks, Abby," said Fitz.

As Abby was about to call Ben Scott, the head speech writer to find out where the team was, the door to the cabin opened and the White House speech writing team walked in with the door immediately shut after they entered the cabin. When the team saw that Fitz was waiting for their arrival, Ben said, "Good morning, Mr. President. Sorry for being late. I hope we haven't kept you waiting long," in a slightly anxious voice. It was never good to keep POTUS waiting.

"It's fine, Ben. I just got here myself. We were discussing the matter of the House Speaker's suggested date for the State of the Union address. I think we have come up to possible resolution to the matter."

"Glad to hear that, Mr. President," said Ben with sense of relief. Ben didn't want him and the speech writing team to be spending the meeting focused on the House Speaker instead of working on the address. After Ben and the other members of the speech writing removed their outer winter wear and got some refreshments, everyone settled into a seat and commenced work on Fitz's last State of the Union address.

Later, much later, that night, Olivia, as promised, helped Fitz get undressed so they could savor their sexual passion and desire for each other. However, with Olivia being pregnant, the two of them refrained from the more physical movements that were typical of their lovemaking while they made love.

The two were now snuggled up in bed in a state of post-coital bliss with Fitz caressing-tickling Olivia as she smiled and giggled.

"We were working on my first State of the Union during our first time at Camp David," recalled Fitz with Olivia acknowledging with a pleasure-filled "hmm."

"Well, at least we don't have to worry about Mellie showing up unexpectedly," commented Olivia.

"Thank God for that," said Fitz. He also remembered bringing Olivia to Camp David had been a protective measure in that there were no cameras at Camp David that would catch them together in an intimate manner. "Camp David is no longer a secret hideaway for us. It is now just a weekend place for us, the President and his First Lady."

He then added, "I'm so happy I am giving my last State of the Union with you by my side."

"Well, I won't actually be by your side during the address. I'm going to be sitting up in the amphitheater…" corrected Olivia.

"In your designated seat as the First Lady. My First Lady," said Fitz as planted light kisses along Olivia's neck. "Which means you are by my side."


End file.
